


The Broken Mould: Zootopia Gods Of Norse; Time's Past

by Sandsstill



Series: The Broken Mould [3]
Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: ITS EVERYWHERE-, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:08:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 33
Words: 135,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27864333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sandsstill/pseuds/Sandsstill
Summary: Loki/ Heimdall/ Sigyn/Odin/ Freya/ Father Time- Growing Old With Grace/ Mother Nature/ The Wilde's/ The Hopps. Everyone - Everything - started somewhere from some time. And we all create each other whether by accident, or Fate.
Relationships: Family - Relationship
Series: The Broken Mould [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1189672
Kudos: 2





	1. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh this chapter is just personal ramblings by the way-

**Introduction and Epilogue**

K’NAAN; Is Anybody Out There

The biggest arrogance of any sentient being is believing they know it all, falling into the trap set forth by those in control of knowledge and made to believe what are held as common truths and facts. Being unable to change by closing their mind to new possibilities is the downfall of true intelligence. Want an example? We all know the earth is round. Prove it. Without any of the information you have ever learned. Not saying I don’t believe this, but seriously prove it! Will you ever be able to go into outer space and see the world as a whole? Even if you can, can you truly convince someone else what you saw was real or is it just commonly accepted as truth? Is there one place on the planet where you can start walking, and keep walking until you reach the same spot again? If there is, will you ever be able to do it to prove the earth is round? Or are you simply accepting it as fact because it’s what we’ve learned and been told is truth? This makes all of us naïve and innocent, no matter how old we are, or how much experience, knowledge and wisdom we believe we have.

We’re all trapped in a world where our beliefs and perceptions are formed on the opinions of others. We’re capable of change, but in most circumstances, no matter what you do or could have done, you’ll still end up on the same path. It isn’t a question of being good enough to accomplish a goal; it isn’t a question of being better than someone else, or being more driven, being more talented, intelligent, or cunning. If the odds are stacked against you in a way that the world has set as standard for who you were born as, or where you are meant to fall into the normal expectation in society's rungs, it’s less likely for someone to break out of that stereotype/mould and the reality of life they were born into than it would be to win the lottery of an obscene amount of money only ** _once_** in a lifetime. When you ask the questions, what is the meaning of life, or what makes the world turn? You’re going to get a range of answers unparalleled to any other questions asked in the history of the written word. Love, money, happiness, wisdom, family, friends, faith, sex, the desire to reproduce, the list goes on and on. But the simplest answer is the one staring you in the face. The answer is hope. Because whatever reason you have for living, whatever you believe to be the meaning of life, whatever you believe will happen while you live, or after you die- you **_hope_** for it.

Control is an illusion. We have a maintained balance in society that sets standards for behavior. But there’s always the chance that one individual will step outside those boundaries. This can be a good thing – or a very bad thing. Locking your doors doesn’t mean someone can’t break in, it doesn’t mean that someone can’t get the idea to go on a shooting spree and kill random people or blow up buildings and upset the ‘natural order’ of that control we believe should be normal. There is no normal. It also means that accidents of the same nature can disrupt that balance and send everything into chaos. Control is a form of power, if you believe you have it, you better believe there’s always someone or some event that can take it from you. If you have it; there are only two reasons why. One; a gun of some kind in your hand- (meaning others fear you or what your actions may cost them). If you have it over others or someone for **_any_** reason- Two; it’s because someone has it **_given_** it to you. That someone - or others you may think you have control over- can take it away if you don’t appreciate the fact that they make you who you are and gave you that position, they keep you where you, are as much as you think you do them. There is no denying work will lead you somewhere, no matter how hard anyone works, taking the attitude you’re better than those under you can be anyone’s downfall.

They say life is a journey and not a destination. But that’s as far from the truth as you could get, because from the moment we’re born, we all know where the journey ends. The true question is…

Do you believe it’s the end of the journey, or the beginning of another? Because when one story in life ends, a new chapter usually begins. Do you believe death is the end of the line, or simply a transition into something else? Is it the end? Or a new beginning… or was there ever any difference between the two?

There are very few religions where the Gods walk among us. We’re left to make our own choices and the only true form of control is over our own thoughts and actions. If you’re in a position where you have stock over others, respect it by respecting them, because you wouldn’t have it without them. A position of authority is a blessing that if taken for granted can lead someone down a dark path that may end with someone finding themselves completely and utterly alone. Love comes in all forms. Respect is the greatest you can have. Take someone for granted and the gods can’t help you when they walk away. Regardless of how strong people believe they are or how much power they think they have - we all need someone. No one can be alone forever.

Life changing events can be extremely happy, or extremely devastating. But it’s possible that all those monotonous little things we forget everyday are the ones that make the biggest difference. Because no matter how small the action you take is, it will affect someone or some event in your life, or someone else's. We often don’t think about what we’re doing and saying to others. You may be having the worst day of your life, and a stranger will walk up to you and say- you are beautiful – you matter, and it will be enough to change your whole day, or you can do it, and change theirs. If that same thing happens and someone says something about how much of a waste of time saying something like that is, it will sink you or whoever you say it to further down, and change the day in another way. Listen to what you’re saying, how you’re acting, what others are saying and how they’re acting-it matters. It isn’t easy to change the way you think or act, or be able to understand the way others do. But you may be able to change the world, by changing the life of just one person, with one little moment at a time. You matter- they matter. Everything you do matters to someone. Everything you don’t do matters in the overall picture.

A con artist can become a cop and be a wonderful person, and an innocent rabbit- who may not be so innocent can stay a cop, simply because one person believed in the other, and held them up to achieve it. The fact is that what you see may only be the tip of the iceberg, and we miss a great deal of the picture if we aren’t looking or don’t know. A fox can love a rabbit, and a rabbit can love a fox. Does it really matter that they are different? Different color, different species, would it have mattered if they were the same species or sex? Same furs, same color, same religion, same belief- No, because love doesn’t see any difference when a person is falling in love with who they are, and not _what_ they are. Do all the things in the past and all the hell we go through pull things apart, or is it what drives us together? It’s a choice we make with every action we take.

Whether you see yourself as a Fox, or a rabbit, male or female, religious or not- Believe you’re making a difference. You don’t have to be a rock star, a dancer, a singer, a cop, or someone everyone sees as important to know you’re important. All you have to do to change the world, may be through one person at a time, or just one person in your lifetime. Try. Even if you fail, try again, and keep trying. It’s easier to be complacent and compliant than to admit you’re the only one who can do that. It's easier to stay quiet and go with the flow- to blame others for things and expect someone else to stand up and change things instead of doing it yourself. It's easier to blame others for the problems in your life - to stay in a comfortable place where you’re used to being miserable and complain about it, than it is to fight for a change. Especially when you know fighting might make you happy and admitting you could change it when there’s always the possibility you’ll fail.

One thing you do may mean everything to another person, and you may be everything to one person. Don’t let someone else’s opinion, or what you fear the world may think - define who you are by keeping you from doing what you believe is right, or pursuing what’s in your heart. We may not be able to change what we’re born as. A fox will always be a fox, and a rabbit will always be a rabbit, but that doesn’t mean we must live within what the world has set as standard for us. We can change who we are by changing the way we behave, the way we live, the work we do, the help we offer, the love we give _and_ accept. Because no matter what you are- on the inside, we all have red blood. No matter what walk of life we come from, how old or young we’re, we each have a heart that beats. We will always love, always hate, always fear, always hurt, always need, always _hope._ Remember that about yourself and everyone around you in the world. What you see may not always be the truth if you aren’t seeing the whole picture. Remember that for all we know, we still know nothing. The foundations have been set. If you feel like you’re lost and alone – remember everyone here is here for the same reason. The world will try to define you. Keep your words sweet, reach if you feel alone and be the friend someone might need. If you’re lost and aren’t sure of who you are, someone else may be the only reason you find yourself again. Be the change in the world. You know who you are… ;)

Think like a bunny,

Love like a fox, or maybe… a hare – and,

**_Break that Mould…._ **

**Notes; Zootopia characters will not come up until the last few chapters as this is mostly regarding Loki, Heimdall, their time together and the Norse Gods. But there are a lot of Norse stories, Disney stories, fairy tales, and fables weaved in after the first few chapters. There’s a lot of tragedy in this story but I always end on a happy note and everything I write is intentional, including the last passages, so please remember that if you’re reading this _Crap_ -**

**Chapter Index and Music**

  1. **Epilogue/ (Gag) K’NAAN; Is Anybody Out There** 1941 
  2. **Dawn Of Time/ (Gag) Legend; Loved By The Sun** 1574 
  3. **Mother Father/ Moby; This Wild Darkness** 5192
  4. **Lady Of The Cliffs/ Scorpion; Send Me An Angel** 5173
  5. **Thicker Than Water/ The Judds; Love Can Build A Bridge** 5325
  6. **Lone Vigil/ Script; The Man Who Can’t Be Moved** 2487
  7. **Cost Of Music/ Daughtry; Battleships** 5982
  8. **Drawn Lines/ Michael William Smith; I Will Carry You** 4296
  9. **Patterns Of Collision/ Nickelback; Satellite - Starset; Everglow** 5423
  10. **In The Depths Of Density/ Lady Gaga; I’ll Never Love Again** 3436
  11. **My Brother’s Keeper/ Heimdall: Eagles; Learn to Be still** 5218
  12. **The Two Brothers Grim(M)/ James Meyers; I Don’t Wanna Be Alone** 3893 
  13. **BF Hansel And Gretel/ Sam The Sham; Little Red Riding Hood** 4764
  14. **A Sleeping Princess/ Lana Del Ray; Once upon a Dream** 2820
  15. **BF Beautiful Rapunzel/ Payton Rae; Not Your Cinderella** 4898
  16. **BF Jack And The Beanstalk/ Natasha Bedingfield; Unwritten** 4244
  17. **BF Peter Cheater Pumpkin Keeper/ XTC; Ballad Of Peter Pumpkin Head** 5014
  18. **BF Said The Spider To The Fly/ Egypt Central; White Rabbit** 3357
  19. **BF Pinocchio/** **America; You Can Do Magic -** **Bruno Mars 24k** 6022
  20. **BF Pink Elephants; (Missing) G.D.I.**
  21. **The Giving Tree/ Saint Raven; Petrified** 4019
  22. **Loki’s Song/ Katelyn Tarver; You Don’t Know What It’s Like** 3038 
  23. **Sorrow Of Divine/ K’NAAN; Is There Anybody Out There** 4607 
  24. **Becoming We Are/ David Cook; Fade Into Me** 4309
  25. **One And Nine/ Jackson Browne; Some Bridges** 6316 
  26. **Broken Arrows/ Avicii; Broken Arrows** 4722
  27. **The First Fox King; King Arthur/ Paul McCartney; Hope For The Future** 3559
  28. **Excalibur and Joan Of Arc/ Cindy Lauper; Time After Time- Falling In Reverse; The Drug In Me/** 3438
  29. **The Big Deal James Young; I’ll Be Good** 4072
  30. **Towing The Line Alessia Cara; Wild Things** 3257 
  31. **The Children Of Grace/ Epic Pop; Amazing Grace -We’re All Gonna Die- A Song** 3337 
  32. **Hidden In Plain Sight Creed; With Arms Wide Open - Kate Ryan; Light In The Dark** 3857
  33. **The First; The Last; The Only; TIME/ 30 Seconds To Mars; Do Or Die** 4496




	2. Dawn Of Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Apologies, I'm not cleaning up the notes in these so they may be repetitive at times

****

**(Optical Illusion affect when you lean away from picture and lean back to it, or there is on my screen-)**

**Tangerine Dream; Loved by the Sun**

In the beginning there was darkness. _Nothing_ stirred in the cold vastness of the black that was existence except the time that had always been. It followed the same path, over and over in a continual loop. Movement was fluid, and it built something as it spun, friction that grew within the darkness of time. There had never been a thought had no thought, no memories, no understanding as the energy from the movement grew and static filled the dark space. Static that came together and pulled at the darkness. Until a pulse began to draw attention from a dark creature who knew nothing, was nothing, had no form, no face, no hands. There were no concerns, for all that had ever been was the darkness of the same path. But something stirred in the stillness, something that made it think, feel, become curious as a tiny speck began to grow. It watched, it wondered. It tried to get closer, fascinated by the warmth it seemed to throw away when its own existence had been so cold that it couldn’t fathom what warmth was. The dark figure tried to see what it was, but each time it drew near, the light from the little speck would push it away. So, it stayed at bay, keeping watch over what it did not understand. Until it began to pulse with each new growth it expanded in. The dark figure swirled around it faster, still trying to understand what it could not be, how it could be. Thought grew, memory grew within the darkness of time as it kept vigil over the first light in existence. A tiny spark, not large enough to be seen as dust. Until all that had grown stopped, and a ring of light encircled it, throwing off the darkness again as it stayed further away. A halo of light was cast, keeping the darkness even further away as it something within the speck began to stir. The dark figure flew away, filled with fear as the tiny mass that had grown around the spark shifted. An rippling halo flew from it as the spark ignited, the first living soul became aware of itself and energy exploded from the thought, scattering parts of itself over the darkness of time. Creation had been born, and the energy of it becoming aware of itself threw parts of it into the darkness of time and existence, propelling all life.

The dark figure watched as lights grew everywhere there had always been only itself. Where it had always been nothing, life began to grow as gases swirled and danced, until they came together to create something new. Stars and worlds collided, creation repeated itself over and over all of time as they crashed into each other. Within each one, at some point a realization of self-came to be, and another new soul was born as life began to propel itself away from its own creator. The darkness that had always been began to be able to move in the shadows of these worlds created by the light, shifting its form and changing as it grew. Within each new life that had a soul, the darkness found a mind, it found all thought, all memory. It moved through all things as each one grew, it held all thought, all memory; for the mind of each living being that had thought, was darkness, hidden from view and a shadow unseen to the light. A secret world within each life hidden within all other worlds, minds only darkness could know. It watched as these lives faded, the mind of the darkness grew with the knowledge of each living creature that had come from the spark of creation. They created measurements of the shadows and light; with it the dark figure started taking from. Something changing and grew from the darkness it had always been as others defined it. Each life created from the matter the spark created would fade, and turn back to something else. But the darkness saw tiny specks leave each dying life and began to collect them. It took each one back to the spark of creation as a gift to share the same knowledge and wisdom it had become a part of. For all the gifts the spark had given to the darkness, the darkness brought it a light. It pulled all the sorrow and darkness from each soul it collected away before throwing it back to the spark of creation, so it would never know the darkness of the worlds it had created. The darkness it pulled from these souls was left in it the of space over time, and it grew colder as life continued to grow. The dark figure watched as the spark of creation let many go after they were returned to it, not understanding why it would refuse the gifts, but they had changed when the spark cast them away. They held no more light, no more wisdom and were fragmented pieces of what they’d once been. Hollow and empty.

Fragmented pieces of broken lights wandered aimlessly as the dark figure watched them become lost. It watched as they began to grow lonely and confused by their existence as they came together. And a different kind of light began to grow. A life not created from the spark of creation. A life created from the true death of millions of living souls. The broken echoed pieces of those who no longer wished to exist came together and a new creature was born from their death. A God of Wisdom, a God of Death.

Large and powerful in his own sorrow, he searched for the truth of how he came to be and created a world where no other like him would ever be lost. Odin hated the one who had cast him away, the mother he believed no longer wished for him. The dark figure watched him gathering the lost pieces in the place he was born. From his own existence and the energy that had created him, a tree began to grow. A tree of life he built his world around before he created another to keep him company, Freya. They started growing and creating other things, the first two living Gods in existence, creating life of their own from all the broken and lost pieces of broken souls they collected.

As the darkness looked into Odin’s mind, it understood why he was and how he came to be. It rushed back to the spark of creation, spinning around all existence so fast that it folded over itself and created Infinity, hiding the spark of creation in a place created from all the shadows the dark figure had lived in due to the shadows cast by its light. The loop created an intersection with all the realms Odin had separated, an intersection between infinity and reality, where only the dark figure could move in and out of both realms, using the section of known as Eternity that crossed and kept them apart to move between the realms. A place where time had folded over itself and stopped, breaking between a place nothing would ever change, where nothing ever grew old or died, where never became a land, and no soul knew sorrow. A place where nothing could reach the spark of creation or cause harm to it and the growing knowledge of Divine the dark figure brought to it each time someone died.

Eternity became a place where the shadows and sections of all time ever seen, drifted around, and the dark figure could move freely between all the worlds. But along the path was a place that held no light. As it saw through time and the darkness it had always known, it saw that Odin and the wife he’d created to keep him company were not the only ones who would seek the spark of creation and the power it held. Every soul the dark figure had collected and made innocent again by removing the darkness from it before returning it to the spark, would become Divine as it rejoined the light was a gift of knowledge from every life, every world. The only way to stay the path, was to warn Odin of the danger in a way that would create a loop that may save all existence. The dark figure would do all it could to keep the spark safe, it would guard what had given it thought, what had given it memory, what had given it purpose - and watched, waiting until the day came when the mammals of the world would evolve and give it a face, hands, the ability to grow and change. But most of all, it waited for the birth of a God who might be able to change the path that had become dark again, back to the light……

**Notes; The word hands in this section are used intentionally. The dark figure and the creature are not Gods - They are many different things that have hundreds of thousands of names in every religion and culture. In ours, they can be named with two - They are not magical, they are not Gods- they hold immeasurable power and they are _REAL_. In this world and all others…**


	3. Mother Father

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We all begin innocent-

**The first two chapters are a tad boring, the others are much more my style and will pick up into that weaving story thing I usually do around chapter ten. If there are skips in time they are intentional as I limited what I wrote for each section. The 'missing parts' of Loki's story were covered in Think Like A Fox through the stories Nicholas told. There is mention of a poem used in regards to Norse mythology here. It's marked in Italics so it can be skipped for those who aren't interested. This would be a bit much for anyone who wasn't headlong into Norse mythology. (I only include about half of it and it's nearly word for word) J.R.R Tolken Based The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings books on the Norse Gods and the passages of poetry listed in this chapter. The names of many giants, dwarfs, even Galdalf came from the first written accounts of the Norse Gods in what's known as the Voluspa. The poem/bible - is missing several passages and has tried to be interpreted by many who've read it. It's also known as the Kings book. There's only one mention of Loddur in Norse mythology, but for some reason he's often referred to by other names here and some have assumed he's Loki due to the fact that Loki is similar and has similar names in other cultures, and because there are no other accounts of him. He was the creator of the world as we know it in Norse mythology.**

**Mother/ Father**

**Moby; This Wild Darkness**

“You would like a what?” Freya bit her lip as Odin gaped at his son.

The young hare in front of him twisted his foot into the ground and dropped his ears. “A little brother?”

The wolf next to her husband cupped a paw over her mouth as he looked at her blinking. “Freya, did you place this notion in his head? Why would he ask for such a thing when he knows we have already set the species. There is one for every element, every thought, growing. I do not understand. Other than creating another in my image for teaching and learning, there would be no need of… I do not understand.”

“No Love, I did not put the notion in his mind. Heimdall, why do you wish for a little brother when you have so many others?”

Heimdall sighed and cringed as Freya tipped forward in her seat, watching his ears pin back. “They are all busy. They have things to keep them from noticing everything that is going on. I hear everything. It is all I can do, watch and listen. Even now my ears ring from small planets that are crashing into each other.”

She leaned away looking back at her mate and smiled. “My Love, perhaps there is cause to create another. Heimdall does his duties even though he is still so young. The others have things that can entertain or amuse them because they are interested in them. With the worlds growing and changing, it may not be such a bad thing to have something that will help Heimdall grow and change as well?”

Odin chewed his lip in thought as the little hare in front of him tipped his brows and raised his ears. “ We would have to create one with no specific purpose. We do not have time to watch one who was not born with knowledge, Freya. He is very young to have such a responsibility, keeping watch over another.”

“He is very young to have the responsibilities he already has, Husband. He can, and has told us of everything that happens in the worlds and all the realms. It is not so much for him to ask for a companion, a brother who will teach him how to enjoy the worlds and learn how to embrace the things that make him uncomfortable, or help him relax. Someone playful, intelligent, with the ability to grow and change. So, he is not so lonely?”

The lion’s ears lifted as he looked back at her with a sneaky smile. “You know you are playing my fiddle, Wife.”

She giggled as she glanced at the little hare who had let his mouth open, ticking his eyes between them. “Are you enjoying the music, my Love?”

Odin roared in a laugh that had the wolf giggling as she looked back at Heimdall, who was slowly smiling as he looked back to his father. “I believe it may be a good thing, to help you learn to play, relax, and have a companion to keep you from being lonely, as much as you pay attention for all of us.” The lion nodded slowly and laughed again as the young buck hopped around excitedly. He looked back at his mate chuckling. “What idea shall we consider as a species? We could create another…” He tipped a brow as she started smiling and looked back at Heimdall as he hopped up and looked at her from her knees.

“You said it yourself. We have all the species set already. Maybe we should consider something new, something, different. What do you think, Heimdall?”

“I would want him to be like both of you, Mother. All the others are different and have little that make us look the same. Can you make him look a little like both of you?”

Odin looked at Freya curiously as she grinned. “What is it you would like him to have from each of us?”

“Father’s thick fur like around his neck and his whiskers?”

Odin chuckled as he preened his whiskers and nodded. “And what of your mother?”

Heimdall looked her over and tipped his ears as a blush ran under his skin, causing her to giggle again as she picked up his chin. “Do not be afraid or embarrassed to tell us what you want. We will always listen and cannot help if you do not speak.”

Heimdall nodded as Odin tipped his head. “You are so pretty. Can he look...a little more like you?”

Odin sat up beaming as he nodded. “Perhaps with a little bit of a longer tail that can have some of my extra fur.” The she wolf raised both brows and gave him a cocky smile as he shrugged. Odin and Freya looked at Heimdall and raised their ears as he cringed again. “What is it you hear, child?”

Heimdall let his ears fall as he looked back through the gardens and beyond the realm of Asgard. He sighed as he turned back to them. “It is so loud and so dark. A small asteroid hit a little planet and they are still crashing around.”

Freya sat up and looked at Odin, bowing her head slightly. She leaned closer and his ears tipped as she spoke. “Shall we also make a lesson of this, Love?”

Odin smiled and tipped his head, looking back at his youngest son. “It makes you uncomfortable. Perhaps we should go and see it ourselves.”

“But it is the end of two things, Father. They will be no more and are tearing each other apart.” Heimdall looked at both of them with a worried frown and sighed as Freya stood, taking hold of his paw.

“Show us. Open the bridge, Heimdall.”

The young hare stepped closer to the edge and looked back at his father, waiting for the lion to tip his head. A nod from the lion and he waved his arm, sending a dark arc over space they walked through until they were standing on another world. Odin and Freya watched him scrunch his shoulders up as several chunks crashed together. The wolf smiled as she bent to her knees. “You must see the end as a beginning. You have asked your father and I for a brother. We will create one for you from this moon.”

“Moon?” Heimdall asked as he looked around shaking his head. “It is just a big rock that crashed into this world. The death of something that could have been.”

Odin chuckled as he shook his head. “No. The beginning of something new. It is a father. Giving part of himself to a mother. This rock will become the moon, it will become the father. Look, see how it has left part of itself with the Mother?”

Heimdall looked over the burning world and cocked his head to one side. “It just looks like ground, earth that has been set on fire.”

Odin nodded as Freya stepped closer to him. “The moon is on fire too. They both lost a part of themselves to come together, and from that, others things grow. From all this chaos, there will be order. The moon will become the father that watches over the mother and all that will grow from what he left with her. He will stay here, pull himself back together and become better and stronger because he will guard over her as she brings new life. Mother Earth and Father moon.”

“Like you and mother?”

Odin almost chuckled again as he nodded. “They will create life, because they changed and created each other, even in what you see now as darkness.” Freya leaned into Odin in an affectionate growl as Heimdall looked around again. She leaned over and when he returned his attention to them she was on her knees, pulling the molten rock around her into a ball. Odin leaned down with her as the young hare watched her sculpting the fiery materials. The wolf giggled as she stood again, watching Heimdall tip his head at the little figure she was holding. “A new light, in the darkness. Something like this?”

Heimdall watched the molten rock she was cupping in her paws keep spitting flames and looked at Odin grinning. “What about your thick fur, whiskers, and the tail, Father?”

The lion laughed as Freya turned the burning lava in her paws. “The whiskers and fur will come after he is here.”

“Will he have as much fur as you?”

“I believe I can manage that.” Odin laughed and Freya giggled as Heimdall bounced excitedly, nodding his head at the longer tail Freya pulled from the material. Odin motioned for him to move away as he stepped closer to his mate and cupped his larger paws around her. Heimdall watched as they pressed their heads together and threw his paws up as a blinding flash took his vision. He slammed his paw over his ears and squinted looking back, his jaw falling when lighting seemed to arc all over them as they glowed. The light faded and Odin and Freya were grinning at each other as Heimdall took a step closer, craning his neck to try and see anything. The lion smiled as Freya stepped away and bent to her knees, watching his son's eyes and mouth grow wider as she opened her arms.

A small figure rolled over in her paws, red fur brighter than lava, paws that looked like cooling molten rock and ears tipped the same color, tails tipped in white brighter than the hottest flames. His little mouth rolled open in a wide yawn and Heimdall giggled as he stretched out in her paws. “Where is all your extra fur father?”

The hare gasped as nine tails uncurled in a fluffy mass. “Nine tails!”

“One for each realm.” Odin chuckled as Heimdall let his mouth fall in an open smile.

“What is he?”

Odin and Freya glanced at each other and the lion looked off for a second, curling his lip in thought. “Looks like a canine with feline features. Fire colored fur. Definitely out of the box thinking on this one, Love.”

Freya smirked. “Fire and a box?

“A Fox!?” Heimdall asked as he looked between them. They both chuckled and nodded as he stepped closer, grinning ear to ear as a set of fire red eyes opened on him. “Look! His eyes are even the color of fire, Mother!”

The wolf raised a brow as Heimdall was knocked to the ground after the little fox pounced on him. “Moves like a feline.” Odin growled in approval.

Freya stood, tipping her head to the side in a gentle smile as Heimdall rolled over giggling at having his face licked with affectionate whining and something between a bark and a mewl. “He acts like a canine. What will we call him love?” She looked back at her mate as his fur ruffled in the winds of the cosmos and tipped his ears back.

“Loki.” Odin said as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder, both of them leaning into each other as Heimdall stuck his arms under the fox’s and lifted him. “Born from the fire of the moon after it cut into the earth.”

“CUT… the Earth? We should just call him - CUTE!” Freya and Odin both laughed as the fox barked several times and tried to chew on his neck as he wiggled out of the young hare's paws and bounced around him trying to tug on his ears. “Loki! Loki! Your name is Loki!” Heimdall fell over giggling as the little fox jumped on his chest licking his face. Loki yawned and Heimdall held his arms out, curling them around the little fox as he snuggled into his chest. “I have a fox brother.”

Odin wrapped an arm around Freya as she leaned into his chest and looked up at him, biting her lip. “Where did you come up with that name Love?”

Odin shook his head and shrugged. “I guess it just came into my mind.” He curled his arms around her, purring as they watched Heimdall and Loki snuggling. The little hare started pointing out things in the darkness beyond where they sat as the fox in his lap yawned again. “Already teaching him.”

Freya looked back at him and sighed as she rested her head on his chest. “Thank you, for the life you have given us.” 

Odin dipped his head and extended and arm towards the waiting bridge, snickering as Heimdall hefted the little fox and stepped into the darkness. Freya covered her mouth as the little fox dug his claws into the hares chest and buried his face in his neck whining. “Don’t worry.” Heimdall smiled as Loki looked up at him from the crook of his neck. “I’ll never let you fall.”

Freya extended a paw Heimdall took and Odin wrapped around her as they started walking back to Asgard. Odin purred as he held to Freya and walked back to the tree of life, watching Heimdall carrying the little fox. “I should speak to Volva. Learn of his future.”

Freya tipped her head as Odin left, walking to the darkness under the tree of life. “Volva?” He stepped away as the dark shapeless form rose in front of him, shivering at the shifting shape.

“Why do you always seem to shrink from me?” The formless shape asked.

Odin curled is lip as he squared his shoulders. “You have no…form.”

He shivered as it curled around him chuckling. “What is it you wish to learn of, great Allfather?”

“I have created another. I wish to know of his purpose.”

“Loooookiii.” It whispered as his ears perked. “Hearing I ask for the holy races.”

“Holy races?” Odin asked.

“Made in the image of all you create. From Heimdall’s sons both high and low; though wilt Allfather that I relate old tales I remember of mammal long ago.”

“Mammals long ago?” Odin asked as he shook his head. “But are we not all there are?”

The darkness swirling around him bubbled. “I remember yet the giants of yore. Who gave me bread in days gone by. Nine worlds I knew. The nine in the tree with mighty roots beneath the mould.”

“The mold?”

“Of old age was the age when Ymir lived. Sea nor cool waves nor sand were there. Earth had not been, nor heaven above, but the yawning gap and grass nowhere.

Then burs sons lifted the level land. Mithgarth the mighty there they made; the sun from the south warmed the stones of earth, and green was the ground with growing leeks.”

“Leek?”

“The moss that grew in the middle dwelling of the realms. What Heimdall has redefined as the world of Earth. Leek is the substance that was the only thing in all the realms that grew when you created him with a piece of each world so he would be connected to them all, see all, hear all. The reason his eyes are the same color. He is tied to the realm and the planet. Loki is tied to the moon as he was created from it. The sun, the sister of the moon, from the south, her right hand cast over heavens rim; no knowledge she had where her home should be; The moon knew not what might was his. The stars knew not where there stations were.”

“The stars and the sun? The moon? The one which Loki was created from?” Odin asked as he cocked his head to the side. “The sons of Heimdall? Other gods cannot create life and he is but a child. If this is all you can tell me how am I to interpret what you say? I know not of the names you speak.”

“Listen well Allfather, for many must come forward. Loddur will be the rise of mammals. Loddur; known to you as Loki, will be the cause of life on Earth through the actions you take. He will shape the world and Heimdall shall be the seed that all grow from.”

Odin raised his head and sighed as the dark water swirled. “And what of the others you have named?”

“No other gods will grow. If you wish to create others as _you must_ ; they must be made as they are meant to be, to follow the rest of all I see.”

“What else do you see?” Odin narrowed his eyes as the ‘water’ fell back and bristled as if a beat was vibrating under it.

“I see all, know all. You bring the souls of the slain to your domain, a great hall awaits. This shall be the Field of deeds, to which all future fates will lead. Death of the light is all your power retains.”

“Field of deeds? A hall of the slain? Death of the light….You speak of whence I came? You know how I came to be? How I grew the tree of life?” He asked a little shocked as the water stilled again.

“You know how you came to be. The knowledge is within you. If you wish to know of all things, hang yourself from tree by your feet. The tree will show you all truth as it rushes the blood of your life to your mind, for the tree has been, long before you.”

Odin curled his lip and growled as he shook his head. “I grew the tree! How can it have been before me!?” The lion leaned away as the water rose and a reflection of his face stared back at him in the suspended liquid, speaking as if it were his face in a mirror;

“The seed of a thought is all it takes for something to grow. All things come from darkness and dust, life grew with a seed of thought and all grow from that seed, no matter how great or small.”

Odin curled his brow and took a seat, listening to the voice rattling on until his ears were ringing with all the names and things he was trying to remember…

_“Then sought the gods their assembly-seats. The holy ones, and council held; Names then gave they to noon and twilight, Morning they named, and the waning moon, Night and evening, the years to number. At Ithavoll met the mighty gods, Shrines and temples they timbered high; Forges they set, and they smithied ore, Tongs they wrought, and tools they fashioned. In their dwellings at peace they played at tables, Of gold no lack did the gods then know,--Till thither came up giant-maids three, Huge of might, out of Jotunheim. Then sought the gods their assembly-seats, The holy ones, and council held, To find who should raise the race of dwarfs.”_

_“Dwarfs?” Odin asked as he looked into the pooling water. The voice continued as he sighed again._

_The race of the dwarfs in Dvalin's throng. Down to Lofar the list must I tell; The rocks they left, and through wet lands They sought a home in the fields of sand. There were Draupnir and Dolgthrasir, Hor, Haugspori, Hlevang, Gloin, Dori, Ori, Duf, Andvari, Skirfir, Virfir, Skafith, Ai. Alf and Yngvi, | Eikinskjaldi, Fjalar and Frosti, Fith and Ginnar; So for all time shall the tale be known, The list of all | the forbears of Lofar.”_

“This Lofar is significant why?” Odin asked as he watched the water rippling.

“The sons of Heimdall shall rise from his birth, his death will teach the whole of mammals on Earth.” The lion looked off shaking his head and reset his ears as the voice continued. “ _Then from the throng did three come forth, From the home of the gods, the mighty and gracious; Two without fate on the land they found, Ask and Embla, empty of might. Soul they had not, sense they had not, Heat nor motion, nor goodly hue; Soul gave Othin, sense gave Hönir, Heat gave Lothur and goodly hue.”_

“Ashly hue? Have they no color?”

The voice of Volva replied; “An ash I know, Yggdrasil its name, with water white is the great tree wet; Thence come the dews that fall in the dales, Green by Urth's well does it ever grow. Thence come the maidens mighty in wisdom, Three from the dwelling down 'neath the tree; Urth is one named, | Verthandi the next, On the wood they scored,-and Skuld the third. Laws they made there, and life allotted To the sons of mammals, and set their fates.”

“The first life on this Earth is a tree? No…Comes from a tree… I send part of the tree of life to this world? What of the fate you speak of?”

“Past, present, and future align, all must be placed to stay in the designed. They will rise though darkness I leave behind, when this world creates me, renames and defines.”

“You will no longer be here? These, Fates will take your place?”

“Already I grow in the shape of your mind. I am only what you have left undefined. A pool of knowledge you seek to find.”

Odin stood and looked over the water curling his lip. “Then rise above it. You are black as the night and should stay with the darkness. Soar with it.” The lion lifted his eyes watching the water rise and chuckled as wings shot from the spout, his arm raised and he smirked as a pair of beady black eyes looked back at him. “Volva, if you existed before me, what is it you are truly called?”

The bird tipped its head, sending him a similar smirk. “You are the Allfather, I am the Old Father. I will be known as Time.”

Odin dipped his head as the bird jumped from his arm and landed on a rocky perch, perking his ears as he heard similar sounds the bird made. He looked down watching feathers that had fallen from the bird shift and startled as two more black birds lifted into the air in from of him. “You have lost part of yourself.”

The black bird chuckled as Odin kept swinging his eyes between all of them. “I have lost nothing. Huginn.” Odin tipped his head as one of the birds landed on his shoulder. “He is thought.” The other bird landed on his other shoulder and the lion looked back at the bird sitting on the rocks with a questioning look. “Munnin. The mind and memory. They will advise you on all the realms and be your eyes and ears in places you cannot be. They are Ravens, as am I.”

Odin chuckled as the birds tickled his ears and returned his attention to Old Father as he opened his wings. “They are gifts?”

The raven chuckled and shook his head. “No, consider them payment for giving me form. The knowledge will remain in these waters and grow as long as others bring more wisdom to it. You have plans on creating one who will write of great deeds and feats next, what you have called a poet.” Odin nodded as the bird looked out through the exit. “There must be others. One must guard these waters.”

The lion sighed as the birds on his shoulders flapped their wings. “You did not tell me of Loki’s purpose, Father Time.”

The raven looked back at him and cocked its head to one side. _“The fetters will burst, and the wolf run free; Much do I know, and more can see Of the fate of the gods, the mighty in fight. Brothers shall fight and fell each other, And sisters' sons shall kinship stain; Hard is it on earth, with mighty whoredom; Axe-time, sword-time, shields are sundered, Wind-time, wolf-time, ere the world falls; Nor ever shall men each other spare. Fast move the sons of Mim, and fate Is heard in the note of the Gjallarhorn; Loud blows Heimdall, he horn is aloft. In fear quake all who on Hel-roads are. Yggdrasil shakes, and shivers on high. The ancient limbs, and the giant is loose; To the head of Mim does Othin give heed, But the kinsman of Surt shall slay him soon. How fare the gods? how fare the elves? All Jotunheim groans, the gods are at council; Loud roar the dwarfs by the doors of stone, The masters of the rocks: would you know yet more?”_

“I do not understand your verse Father time, but I would always wish to know more.”

The raven bowed it head as it began again; _“Now Garm howls loud before Gnipahellir, The fetters will burst, and the wolf run free. Much do I know, and more can see of the fate of the gods, the mighty in fight. From the east comes Hrym with shield held high; In giant-wrath does the serpent writhe; O'er the waves he twists, and the tawny eagle Gnaws corpses screaming; Naglfar is loose. O'er the sea from the east there sails a ship. With the people of Muspell, | at the helm stands Loki; After the wolf do wild men follow, And with them the brother of Byleist goes. Surt fares from the south with the scourge of branches. The sun of the battle-gods shone from his sword; The crags are sundered, the giant-women sink, The dead throng Hel-way, and heaven is cloven. Now comes to Hlin yet another hurt, When Othin fares to fight with the wolf, And Beli's fair slayer seeks out Surt, For there must fall the joy of Freya.”_

“Freya is the only wolf I have created. She is to destroy me?” Odin asked as the raven bowed its head.

“No. It is what I see, unless your will is strong enough to change it. Do you wish to know more?”

Odin scrunched his nose and nodded as the raven continued; _Then comes Sigfather's mighty son, Vithar, to fight with the foaming wolf; In the giant's son does he thrust his sword. Full to the heart: his father is avenged. Hither there comes the son of Hlothyn, The bright snake gapes to heaven above; Against the serpent goes Othin's son. In wondrous beauty once again Shall the golden tables stand mid the grass, Which the gods had owned in the days of old, Then fields unsowed bear ripened fruit, All ills grow better, and Baldr comes back; Baldr and Hoth dwell in Hropt's battle-hall, The war I remember, the first in the world, When the gods with spears had smitten Gollveig, And in the hall of Hor had burned her, Three times burned, and three times born, Oft and again, yet ever she lives. Heith they named her who sought their home, Thence come the maidens mighty in wisdom, Three from the dwelling down 'neath the tree; Urth is one named, Verthandi the next, On the wood they scored, and Skuld the third._ Laws they made there, and life allotted to the sons of mammals, and set their fates.”

“Stop.” Odin sighed as the bird chuckled. “I can only hold so much knowledge and do not understand most of what you say.”

Father time bowed his head. “Not all is meant to be understood. You must make each choice the way you see fit and I cannot alter the decision you make.”

“These three wise. Are they the Fates you speak of? Will they advise me if you are no longer here?”

“They shall. For a time, Allfather.”

Odin sighed as the bird flew away, and made his way back to his wife, watching Heimdall giggling as he raced around with their new son chasing him.

“Something weighs heavy on your mind love.” Freya said as she leaned closer to him.

He tipped his ears back watching the boys playing and shook his head. “The future I asked of was…not revealed, and I could not interpret what it meant. I do not know what Loki’s purpose is.”

Freya giggled and rested her head on his shoulder. “You have said all things happen for a reason. Do you need to define what you can see?”

Odin brushed his cheek over her head and laughed as Heimdall was pulled to the ground by a giggling red fox kit. “Perhaps not…..”

**Notes; Volva is a see-er who tells Odin the fate of all the Gods long before anything begins, naming Loki as the one who will cause Ragnarok, even going so far as to mention his children - though it seems the 'witch' didn't use many of their names often in the account, she does openly describe the massive wolf, a serpent who thrashes the seas, and hel.**

**The meaning of the name Volva is wand carrier, carrier of magic or carrier of a magical staff. In this story- Volva was a dark figure that stirred beneath the tree of life and held no true shape because Odin couldn't think of it as something else until it was explained to him. Odin gave it form and it became the Raven, leaving the water full of its knowledge, thus creating the waters of knowledge and becoming- Old Father Time. Time is darkness. When Old father Time left the waters of Knowledge it lost a couple of feathers and they became the Ravens that sit on Odin's shoulders - Huginn and Munnin. Thought and Memory. They're part of Time, as Time would be the only figure who could hold all memories and thought- therefore capable of outrunning both. Each mind is a world of its own. Not even being able to speak or speaking will allow anyone to truly understand another mind. All minds are dark because they are unseen - not because they hold ill intentions. There is only one thing Time cannot approach. They're exact opposites…**


	4. Lady Of The Cliffs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No matter who you begin as, others will help create who you eventually become...

**Lady Of The Cliffs**

Scorpions; Send Me An Angel

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Loki looked up in awe, watching the wings of something sending a shadow over everything around him. He stumbled back as a featherless creature landed in front of him, narrowing it’s eyes as he let his jaw fall. “Magnificent.” He mumbled.

The creature cocked its head, smiling as it tilted lower and looked him over. “I am maleficent?”

Loki laughed. “No I said magnificent, that is not even a real word.”

“What is…magnificent? What are you? I have never seen anything as peculiar as you before.”

“Magnificent is…grand, striking, beautiful. Like you. I am a fox.” He replied, looking over the wings that folded out as her knuckles stayed on the ground. “And you?”

She smiled as she raised her wings, watching his eyes grow as they spread in a large flare. “I am Angela.”

Loki rolled his eyes. “I asked what you were, not who you are.”

“Have you not seen my kind before either? What land do you hail from? Not even the tiny things that scurry on the ground have such peculiar… what is all over you?”

Loki pressed his paws to his chest and curled his brow. “I am from Asgard. My fur?”

“Fur…” she leaned closer and he raised a brow as she raised a massive claw, narrowing her eyes as he tipped a brow. “You do not move away when you know I could…”

“You could what?” he asked curiously as she narrowed her eyes.

“Kill you.”

Loki looked off scrunching his nose. “I think I know what that means. My mother said I was almost killed when I was very young, but it isn’t something that is common where I am from.”

“Not common? Death is not common? Who is your Mother?”

“Freya. She said I could come look around Earth. So, here I am!”

“Earth?”

“This world.”

Angela rolled her eyes. “You call it Earth?”

“Yes, does it have another name?”

“We call it the land of the morning star. Your mother is Freya…and your father is…?”

“Odin.” Loki watched her stand and craned his neck as her massive form towered over him. “You are so… I did not know any creature could be as large and magnificent as the G-”

She leaned down again, giggling as Loki looked her over. “Death is not common where you are from? Is birth?”

Loki cocked his head and scrunched his nose. “Birth? What is Birth?”

“You know nothing of love?”

The fox gave her an incredulous glare as she let her face rest in front of him, having to tilt her head sideways so her long beak didn’t run him through. “How would I know nothing of love just because I know nothing of birth? I have a large family, so many siblings I cannot count them all. What does…birth - have to do with love?”

“How is it new ones are made where you are from?”

Loki sighed as he scratched his head and shrugged. “Mother and Father created them using their powers. But no more are needed as they all have their places set by Father. Each has a specific duty and tasks to care for. Most are born the way they will always be.”

“Powers?”

“They are Gods. No one else can create life like they do.”

“They have the power to ‘create’ all things?” Loki nodded as she looked him over. “And you, what task are you meant to care for? What power is yours?” Loki frowned and looked around. His eyes shot back to her as she rested the tip of her claw on his chest, tilting her head. “You have no duties as the others, no power?”

“Not like the others. I am meant to learn all I can. That is my task. My power is… hmm, I do not know what my power is. I shall ask the next time I am home.”

She chuckled as she leaned away smiling. “You have come to learn? A God. Yet you know nothing of birth, or love?”

“It is why I am here.”

She stood up looking around, and growled as Loki looked past the edge of the cliffs. Watching a black bird flying above them. The fox chuckled as her wings fluttered at her sides. “You do not like the bird?”

“Bird? Is that what it is called? I have been trying to catch it for more suns than I can recall.”

She looked back at him when he laughed. “You cannot catch time, it will always slip away.”

“Time? The ‘bird’ is time?”

Loki looked out watching it disappear and nodded. “That is its name, yes. Old Father Time. We call him Old Father, as our Father is the AllFather. Creator of all things, Wisdom, knowledge and Death.”

She leaned down again, narrowing her eyes. “Death? A God of death? Why is he a god of death? Does he cause it?”

Loki scowled as he looked off in thought. “No, he says it is how he came to be. He was created from death. He says we live from fairy dust, but it makes no sense because the fairies never die. It is all he explains. That the death of things are the reason we are and stay as we are. The Fates beneath the tree of life manage such things.”

“Fairies? Fates?”

The fox gave her a curious look as she raised her brows. “Fairies are…unpleasant little things that are hard to explain. They are connected to time and fate and impossible to catch. The Fates, there are three. One who sees the past, one who sees the present, one who sees the future of all mortals.”

“How do they do this?” Loki shifted and she chuckled, watching his anticipation and impatience. “You have come to learn, teach me of the Fates. A way of…giving something when something is given to you.”

Loki looked at her and smiled. “That is our way. To pay for knowledge. The Fates are part of Time. They stole my Father’s eye and Mimir took theirs as payment for stealing knowledge they were not meant to have. Old Father Time gave them each a grain of sand to swallow so they would have a new purpose.”

Angela tipped her head to the side. “They stole another’s eye? Who is Mimir? Why would Time give them sand?”

Loki chuckled. “It happened when I was still small. Mimir is the guardian beneath the tree of life. He protects the waters of knowledge. I do not know why Time gave them the sand. But they use my Father’s eye to look into the past, present, and future.”

“They can see all things? Even the future?”

Loki nodded as she looked to the sky. “My Father seeks council and advise from them.”

“How old are you?”

The fox curled his lip and shook his head. “If I were using a rough estimate I would say around four billion four hundred of the times this planet revolves around the largest star here. What you call the sun. I was created from the fires of the moon in your sky.”

“You know the bird is time, yet you have no concept of time?”

Loki looked out again and shrugged. “Old Father Time is difficult to understand as he keeps everything and reveals little. Time never forgets. I know Time changes things in the realms, but it has little effect on me or my siblings.”

Angela spread her massive wings and giggled as Loki examined them. “If I teach you of love, can you take me to the Fates?”

Loki curled his brow. “Yes.

“Wait here, and I will show you what birth is.”

Loki watched her sail away from the cliffs and flipped his ears up, swiveling as a black bird landed behind him. “Old Father?” He chuckled as he stepped closer, watching the bird tilt its head to the side.

“Loki, it is unwise for you to stay here.”

The fox looked back and curled his nose. “Why? I am learning something. How is it unwise to seek wisdom? It is what Father said we should all do. Mother sent me to look around. I wish to stay and learn of things I do not know.”

The bird sighed and flew away after Loki tipped his ears, listening to the flapping he’d heard earlier. Watching with awe as she landed I front of him again. “Can you fly?” Loki snickered and shook his head as she stayed lifted from the ground. “If you cannot fly, how did you get here? How will I meet the Fates?”

“A bridge from one realm to another. My brother opened it for me. We can travel the bridge that will take us right to them. It is just beyond the canyons edge. My brother left it open for me so I could return any knowledge I found to the waters of knowledge.”

“Waters of life? If you drink from this will you know all things?”

Loki snickered. “No, it is where Father time came from. We use it to pool all the knowledge we learn from life. Sometimes it is called the water of life. I can take you to meet them, but I will not be able to introduce you to the other Gods.”

“Why not?”

Loki frowned as he looked around. “Father was holding council with the fates. He said he knew of things he wished to change but was not sure how to. The fates are very difficult to understand. It is not uncommon for Father to retreat into the Great Hall with everyone after he has spent many days learning from them before he tries to understand their meaning. They are all in the Great Hall having a feast and will not be available for many moons.”

“He did not wish you there? Why did you not stay?”

Loki chewed his lip as he cocked his head and curled is brow. “He hung himself from the tree of life for nine days and was very quiet for a long time before he sought their council. He stayed to himself before he announced he needed a reprieve. He is very powerful and does not tire easily or become distracted often. I did not think to ask why he did not call me to the hall. I was more interested in coming here.”

She stood to her full height and looked around as Loki kept looking at her skin. “I only wish to meet the Fates. Meeting the Gods can wait until I have learned more. Part of love is feeling like you can fly. Climb on my back and I will show you what birth is.”

Loki climbed up her back and sucked in a breath as she fell over the side of the cliff. He snickered at the exhilaration of the air brushed through his fur. Each time she would dive, he laughed at the odd sensation in his stomach. She glided over treetops, and he sucked in a breath as she dropped into a steep dive, looking around in wonder as they stayed a few inches from the water. She sped into a clearing and landed, smiling as he slid from her wing.

“This is birth.”

Loki tipped his head sideways as another animal curled around a mound. He looked back at her and shook his head. “Angel? Why does she…leak, from her eyes?”

“It is Angela. They are called tears. It happens sometimes when someone is very happy.” He stepped closer, looking into the mound she was half curled around and perked his ears as something cracked. One paw rested on the mound as he climbed in, watching curiously as the crack opened. The mother looked at him and back to Angela, casting her eyes away as the large female’s eyes lit up in flash of fiery warning that blackened her eyes.

Loki leaned closer as part of the egg fell away, both his eyes growing as a tiny beak of some kind poked though. A small head fell out, gasping for air and squalling as it stretched and broke the rest of the egg away. He picked it up gently, running his thumbs over its chest as it kept making strange noises. The mother swallowed and he looked at her grinning as he laid the infant next to the other eggs that started hatching. “What species is this? They will look like her, and grow so large?”

Angela tipped her head as Loki climbed back out of the nest. “It is a Saurolophus. We also call them Big Mouths. You did not grow?”

Loki scrunched his muzzle. “Yes, but I was the last who grew. The others after me were made and have been the same since they were created. How do you make them like this, so small that they can grow so large?”

“Love makes them.” She answered as he looked back at the nest.

“Then I would like to learn more of it, for it must be even more magnificent with such a side effect.”

“Side effect?” She laughed as she tipped her wing down and Loki climbed on her back again, marveling at the thought of everything he would learn. The fox slid again after she landed and perked his ears as she pointed to the cave at the top of the cliffs. “We must go inside. There is something I must give you before you learn of love.”

Loki shook his head and sighed as he walked inside, watching the shadows dancing around the walls. He turned quickly when he heard her hissing and groaning.

Angela held one of her claws out and he looked it over curling his lip as she huffed several times. “Eat this.”

“Gods do not each mortal foods.”

“It is not food. It is my heart. In order to learn or teach of love, you must make a sacrifice and give someone your heart. It is very painful.”

Loki cringed as he looked at his chest. “You…removed it from yourself? Love hurts?”

“You do not need to remove yours. I removed part of mine. It is my sacrifice to give you my heart. It is your sacrifice to accept it, knowing it will cause pain and change you. It is the only way to learn of such things. I will give it willingly and teach you of love, if you teach me of the Gods.” She took a deep breath and held her claw out again as he looked it over. 

The thought of eating something other than the fruit or wine’s in Asgard made his stomach flip as he looked at the black chunky object. His eyes shot back to her and she giggled as he took it. He glanced at her as she tipped her beak and decided it might be better just to swallow it whole. It was tossed back in a single gulp and his eyes flew open as a surge of pain coursed through his whole body. He hit his knees, curling into a ball of agony as Angela stepped closer, running a claw over his head as his eyes and teeth clenched. “I will go and meet the Fates. When I return you will have changed and will be ready to learn of love.”

“How long will this last!” Loki cried as he curled into a tighter ball.

Angel chuckled as she stepped back through the entrance. “Change takes time. I told you love hurts. This is the price of the knowledge you seek.”

The fox grit his teeth as his legs curled into his chest. His arms curled around his body before the pain set him on fire. She left Loki alone in the dark, screaming.

When she returned he was still writhing, begging for the pain to stop. She peered over him smiling as tears streamed down his face. “Your tears are fire?”

“M-make it stop!”

“Tell me why you cry fire and I will.”

“Please…” He whined as she narrowed her eyes and tilted her head as his teeth clenched together again. “I was c-created from creation. It is the fire from the creation of this world!”

“You have the power of creation within you? Like your father, the greatest of all gods?” She looked off smiling as Loki grit his teeth, fighting not to scream again.

“Y-yes! Please make it stop!” Loki sucked in a breath as her paws landed on him, closing his eyes and rolling his head in her paw as her other massive paw folded over his chest. He groaned at the cool sensation pulling the pain away. She tried to move away and giggled as he pulled her paws back to him, making an odd noise that had her grinning as he rubbed his face all over her fingers. “You’re so cold.”

“All my kind are cold. It is not what soothes you. It is the touch. When love is the only thing that can calm the fire burning in you.”

Loki groaned as he paws wrapped around him and shook his head. “I do not wish to learn anymore of it. I have walked through fire and never felt pain from the heat.”

Angela brushed her claws down his chest, watching him roll his head in her other paw. “There are other kinds of heat from love that do not cause this.”

Loki’s eyes shot open on her as a surge of heat pooled in his gut. She laughed when his eyes rolled, his head falling back as he gasped…

He wasn’t experienced enough to know that everything she said was the truth _and_ a lie…..

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Mimir looked around and brushed aside some dangling roots as a black bird landed in front of him. “Old Father?”

“I need the eye of Odin, but for a moment.”

Mimir curled his lip as he backed away. “Everything comes at a cost, even for you.”

“Do you know what price I could extract for denying me?” The bird threw its wings out and Mimir shrank as it cawed at him. “Where are the Fates?”

Mimir’s eyes fell as he folded his arms over his chest. “You know they are gone, Old Father. I returned from the last supper and found only ashes in their place.”

“There must be Fates, Mimir. Without them everything unravels.” 

Mimi agreed and waded into the waters of life, plucking something small from the bottom and walking back to the bird as he held it out in his open palm. The guardian of the waters of knowledge watched as the bird pulled a grain of sand from its wing and used it’s beak to place it inside the eye of Odin. “Guard it as you always have. The price of one who asks for it will be the inability to tell of someone’s fate or tell the future of it so it could be changed. The one who wishes for wisdom and takes this eye, can never tell anyone of their own death, or see theirs. He may never tell of the future that would change a decision that has been made, but may advise others on it.” He tipped his head as the bird opened its wings and flew away….

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Heimdall shook his head as he looked back at his mother. “I cannot hear him anywhere.”

Freya looked out over the realms shaking her head. “I told him he could go to the Earth. He was curious about it. Do you know of the last place he was there?”

The hare nodded as he looked back and threw a bridge open. “I will look, but I cannot imagine him being there when I cannot hear him any longer.” He left, walking the universe before his feet hit the Earth. His eyes went up as a large winged beast landed in front of him. “I know this is the last place my brother was. Do you know what has become of Loki? He needs to come back to Asgard.”

Angela looked at him and giggled as she shook her head. “He does not want to return. I have given him my heart, as he has given me his.”

“Your heart?” The buck leaned away crinkling his nose as she spread her wings and showed off the scar over her chest. “He will be staying with me.”

Heimdall frowned as he threw a bridge open and walked back to Asgard. Freya’s ears set as he looked at her. He shook his head as he kept walking.

Mimir looked up as Heimdall walked through the roots. His large ears ticked back and forth, listening to the water dripping into the pools. “MIMIR!”

The guardian stood and bowed his head slightly. “Heimdall, what pulls you from your duties?”

“My brother is missing. I cannot hear or see him anywhere. I need knowledge of something I do not know.”

Mimir tilted his head as he looked over the waters of knowledge. “What is it you believe you need to know? You hear and see all. What would the guardian of Asgard need any other knowledge for?”

“Worldly things. There is one I believe has Loki hidden. She said she gave him her heart.”

Mimir laughed. “This is not so unusual. Does your Father not hold your Mother’s heart?”

Heimdall ran his paw over his ears, shaking his head. “Yes, but in this case it is a literal statement. I did not know mortals could remove part of their physical body without it causing some kind of harm.”

Mimir curled his lip. “Part of her physical heart? What has Loki done with it?”

“I do not know. The lady lives above the cliffs. She is…dark. Unlike any God or mortal I have met. I have seen the magic she uses, watched her out of curiosity because it is so different from what Mother does.”

“You wish to see what this dark magic is? All knowledge comes at a price.”

Heimdall looked around the waters of knowledge. “I care not for knowing the magic, I only wish to see her intentions and find my brother. It is my duty to watch all the gods.”

Mimir hummed as he looked back over the waters of knowledge. “It must be odd, no longer being his shadow. I cannot imagine Loki leaving his tenth tail. I shall give you something that will give you the wisdom you seek, but the cost will be that you may never share the knowledge with others or change the end of the path they seek with anyone but me. I wish to know of the things you see in all worlds in the future.” Heimdall agreed and watched Mimir wade into the water, returning with an outstretched paw. “It has been sitting in the waters of knowledge for eons and soaked up as much wisdom as it can hold. Swallow it and you will know of her intentions, only if she allows you to touch her. You may not see anything from a god if they do not allow it and you may never tell them of their final fate.”

“Fate?” he asked looking it over. “Is that my father’s eye?”

Mimir bowed his head. “It is. You may never tell the time of someone’s death, for it cannot be changed and would cause a life of misery. Any action you take with the knowledge you gain from this can only be your own. You may do whatever you wish, but cannot change what another mind has chosen by revealing what their choice would lead to. Do you still wish for it? You will not see the time of your own death for it would cause you misery. You may only see so far, for knowing the entire path is impossible when a mind can change and be influenced by others. This is the price for the wisdom you seek.”

Heimdall curled his lip as he took it and looked back at Mimir with a heavy sigh. The guardian of the waters of knowledge watched him swallow Odin’s eye and raised a brow as the hare looked out again, shaking his head. “I see nothing different.”

Mimir chuckled as he watched the hare glaring at him. “You will not see it unless it is granted by a God. Mortals, all you will have to do is touch. If this, Lady of the Cliffs allows it.”

Heimdall tipped his head and left the waters of knowledge beneath the tree of life, returning to his mother. The she wolf raised her head hopefully as her son looked out over the realms again. “Mother? May I see your path?” Freya shook her head as Heimdall sighed. “Mimir gave me Father’s eye. He said it would allow me to see someone’s intentions. If I am to know what the…Lady of the Cliffs has done with Loki, I should prepare for it by experiencing it first.”

Freya sighed as she held her paws out, watching as Heimdall gripped them and closed his eyes.

The hare rocked several times, his face curling and twisting as a vision opened. He stumbled away from her, slamming to the ground as he fought to catch his breath. “Heimdall?” Freya asked as he looked up at her heaving, fighting the tears in his eyes.

“We must speak to Father.” The wolf tilted her head and rushed after him as he burst into the great hall. The lion leaned forward in his chair as Heimdall huffed, and Freya watched curiously. “Father. I have seen something you should know of.”

“Then speak of it.”

Heimdall looked back at his mother and cringed. “I saw a darkness growing, spreading over everything. It grew from the Earth.”

“How did you learn of it?” Odin asked suspiciously.

The hare looked back at his mother nervously. “Mimir gave me the wisdom of foresight. I saw only what mother allowed me to see.”

“What did you see?” Odin asked.

Heimdall cringed as Freya’s set her ears. “Mother’s path revealed the death of Loki. I cannot change this unless he changes his mind.”

Freya cupped her paws over her muzzle and Odin sighed as he shook his head. “Gods do not die.”

“It was not mothers choice I saw, Father. Only her reactions to things she could not change. I do not know what is happening with Loki. I cannot see or hear him.”

Odin tipped up and watched Freya chewing her lip. “Is your brother still there?”

“I believe the Lady of the Cliffs has hidden him.”

Odin waved a paw. “Return to the Earth. Go and find the source of this darkness, Heimdall. Find your brother and bring him back to Asgard.”

Heimdall rushed back to the world looking around, and stepped back as the Lady of the Cliffs landed in front of him. “Did I not tell you he would not leave?”

The hare chewed his lip and tipped his head. “I only wish to see that he is well.”

“He is. That is all you need to know.”

Heimdall sighed as he dropped his ears. “Then can you…” She tipped her head, narrowing her eyes as he lifted a paw. “Give me your word he is well? I only wish to return to our mother with this news. In our lands all one has to do is clasp paws to make this agreement.”

She chuckled as she extended a massive claw, and Heimdall bowed his head as he took it, keeping his head lowered as the visions in his mind raced. The female in front of him stepped back as he opened his eyes and extended her wings. “Now you can return to your mother and give her this news.”

Heimdall dipped his head as he watched her gliding away and curled his lip as he looked around. He searched through the earth until he found the entrance to a cave above the cliffs he’d seen in her mind, and carefully snuck in. The hare frowned the lower he went, listening to the echoes of the cave and the unnatural shadows that buried the sounds coming from within the earth. He stepped out into the dim glow, looking around. His ears shot up as he heard several grunting sounds and swiveled, spotting Loki leaned over a large pool of lava. “Loki?”

The fox turned his head, smiling as he panted. “Brother?”

The fox used several rocks to brace against to stand and Heimdall’s face fell as he cradled his stomach. “What has happened to you?”

Loki waddled over to him, sweat pouring from his brow as he braced against the rocky cavern walls with one paw, while the other seemed to be holding up the weight of his extended abdomen. He stopped and leaned against a large boulder, his eyes curling together and his teeth grinding as his voice carried through a tight mouthed scream. Heimdall rushed to his side, curling an arm under his brother’s shoulder. “You need to return to Asgard. Mother can heal whatever ails you.”

Loki looked at him and laughed as he turned and took a seat on the same rock, shaking his head as he kept huffing. “There is nothing wrong with me, Brother. This is…” Loki rubbed his swollen belly, smiling as he curled his eyes together and groaned again as he clutched the rock he was sitting on. “This is the result of love.”

Heimdall gave him a scowl and looked him over shaking his head. “You are ill. Love does not cause this. I swallowed Father’s eye to find you and gained the ability of foresight, to see things that may come. Mother is worried, as am I. You must return to Asgard. Let me look at your path and I will tell you-”

“No.” Loki huffed as he shook his head. “I will see the future soon enough, Heimdall. Tell Mother I am well.”

“I already told you he would not leave. You do not belong here.”

Heimdall turned scowling at the lady of the cliffs as she crawled through another entrance. “There is nothing in any world I cannot see or hear, and yet this place is hollow and black, no sound carries. What have you done to this place? To him?”

Heimdall was nearly knocked over as she stuck a massive claw on his chest and cringed as the visions from her future flooded his mind. Loki screamed again and she turned away from the hare, running her claw along his face as he grit his teeth. The fox heaved several breaths and smiled as he held her claw. “Go home, Heimdall. Tell mother I am well and happy. I am not leaving…”

**Notes; We all start off naïve and innocent, no matter who, or what we're born as - into, or how sly and tricky we become.**

**Maleficent; causing harm or destruction, especially by supernatural means.**

**Angela; Angel, messenger of God, why the Valkyries are also known as Angels.**


	5. Thicker Than Water

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well it is!

**Thicker Than Water**

The Judds; Love Can Build A Bridge (Ughghgg- Hu, it grew on me)

Heimdall shook his head as he rushed from the caves, running back to Asgard where Odin and Freya stood waiting for him at the gates. The lion tilted his head as Heimdall clutched his knees. “He is ailing and will not listen. She has done something to him and the path I saw her create is…”

“What is this path? Huginn and Munnin have reported there are many dark things growing there, but nothing I would think to worry about.” Odin asked as he curled his lip, wrapping an arm around Freya as she curled into his chest.

Heimdall stood and brushed his ears down as he looked back. “That is because she is keeping it hidden from us. She means to steal something. Something that will give her the power to create anything she wishes. Whatever she has done to Loki is the key to it, but I could not see what she had changed. It was too dark.”

Odin’s face fell as he looked off in thought. “Freya, go and speak with Idun. Gain your strength back from this sorrow. I will be there shortly.” The she wolf nodded and Odin watched her leaving before he turned to Heimdall. The hare raised both brows as his father curled his lip up. “Is there a way to destroy this darkness?”

Heimdall looked around and shrugged. “I do not know, Father. I could not see one in her path but I only saw hers. Loki would not allow it, he said he would see the future soon enough.”

“I have lost council with the Fates as they are gone. Look at my path. Tell me if I can change this darkness they said will take over.”

Heimdall cringed as he looked at his father’s paw. “I cannot, Father. It was a condition of the knowledge I gained. I cannot tell someone something if it changes the path they have chosen or see past each choice they would make as others may change the path and their decision.”

Odin growled. “I have already chosen a path. I do not ask that you tell me how, only if what I plan will work.” The hare tipped his head and grabbed his father’s paw, looking at the lion as his eyes filled with tears. The lion curled his lip and growled. “Will it work?”

“Father… you know you will kill Loki?”

“Will. It. Work?” he asked as he curled his muzzle into a harsh frown. Heimdall nodded slowly, the tears streaming down his face as Odin stood and looked back through the gates. “You are to leave him there. If she has changed him to make the realms dark, he no longer has a place in Asgard.” Heimdall let his arm fall as his father left growling.

The hare looked back to the Earth trying to hold his chest as his ears trembled, and ground his teeth as he threw a bridge open, rushing back to the world. He crept back into the cave, traversing into the hollow of the Earth until he found Loki again. The hare blinked as the fox turned to him with a glowing smile. “Brother! You have returned?”

“Loki…” Heimdall asked curiously, looking over his form. “You no longer ail?”

The fox chuckled as he shook his head and scrunched his nose. “I told you I was not ill. Come and see.” He waved a paw and waited as the hare followed him into another area.

Heimdall’s face dropped, looking at all the glowing eggs in the cavern. “What is all this?”

The fox smiled wider, curling around the eggs. “They are my children. Soon they will be born.”

Heimdall curled his lip. “Loki…Father is going to destroy the threat of darkness in this world. You must return to Asgard!”

The fox’s ears pinned back as Heimdall looked around again. “Darkness?”

“The lady of the cliffs, she has hidden you from me. I cannot see or hear you in this place.”

Loki scoffed. “Angela? Oh she is just being protective. It is how all mates in this world are with their chosen and their children.”

“Loki - she is not being protective of you. She will have no use for you once they are here. I have seen her path. Has she told you she wishes to take you somewhere after they are born? That she has been keeping you and them hidden, even from mother?”

The fox looked at his brother and dropped his eyes. “She said she wanted to show me the great circle.”

“WHAT GREAT CIRCLE LOKI?!” he screamed as he looked around. “The only thing I saw in her path was death! A way to create anything she wishes for and reach some kind of power no one should hold!”

“She means to kill me?” Loki’s ears pinned to his head and he looked around before he curled around the eggs.

Heimdall fumed. “You must return to Asgard!”

“No. If death is the price I must pay to see them, I will stay.”

“Loki, they are not anything worth death!” He tried to grab the fox’s arm and Loki snapped his jaws at him, growling. Heimdall looked at him in shock as his lips vibrated over his teeth. “You will not let me see your path. Let me look at theirs.” The fox kept his teeth showing as Heimdall reached over his tail and placed a paw on one of the glowing eggs. He looked off blinking and his face fell before he looked back at his brother. “There is no darkness in them. I cannot see anything but light.”

“All the more reason for me to stay and treasure them as long as I can.” Loki whispered as he curled around them again.

Heimdall chewed his lip and looked back towards the exits he’d come through. “If you will not leave them, bring them to Asgard. Whatever she has planned cannot be good for them either.”

Loki lifted his head as Heimdall grabbed an egg. “We have little time Brother….”

They gathered the eggs and Heimdall looked back at Asgard shaking his head. “We will not be able to go through the front gates. The best place to hide them would be with the tree of life. They would go unnoticed there with all that the tree already grows.” He opened a bridge that led to another world and watched Loki cradling them to his chest. “Father is with the tree of life. We will have to wait until he leaves to return to Asgard.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Odin growled as he pulled an egg from the tree of life. Freya caught him as he walked through Idun’s garden and flipped her ears back as she left her daughter tending to the trees. “What are you doing Love?”

The lion curled his lip as he looked at his wife and kept walking. “I mean to end this darkness before it spreads. The Fates warned me of this.”

“End it?” She looked at the massive egg he was carrying and to the gates as he threw them open, hefting the massive egg over his head. “ODIN- LOKI IS STILL THERE!”

“I know. I have placed something in the egg that will help things start there again. Sacrifices must be made in order to keep all the realms safe.” He raised the egg above his head, hurling it at the Earth as Freya screamed.

“NO!”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Heimdall winced as he heard his mother and threw another bridge open that led to Asgard, directly to the tree of life. Loki laid the eggs around the bottom of the tree, watching his brother as his ears kept jumping. “Go and see Mother, Loki. I will watch them until you return.”

Loki looked around nervously as Heimdall rolled his eyes. He bowed slightly as the hare scowled at him. Heimdall took a seat, playing with the grass as a black bird landed in front of him. It ticked its beak to the side, almost smirking as the buck groaned and rubbed his face. “Old Father, if you wish to mock me, please do it now. I am sure it will be nothing compared to what my father will do once he finds I have disobeyed him. Loki would not leave without them.”

The bird chuckled as it hopped closer, examining one of the eggs. “Do you know what they are?”

Heimdall sighed as he looked at them and shook his head. “Loki’s children. I do not think he even knows what they are.”

“Loki is the first among the gods who had a brush with death. Now he has created a link between the mortal realm and the realm of the Gods. The Earth and everything on it will soon be destroyed. Reborn from an egg that grew from the nose he took from you. A nose the tree of life made it part of itself.”

Heimdall looked at the bird, narrowing his eyes. “I was there on both occasions. Everything Mother and Father did to save him made him even more like them. It is unlike you to speak so openly of such things that will happen. You know where this will lead?”

“I know of all things, Heimdall. Only I keep all Fates. I would think you would see what this is much more easily than you are.”

The hare sighed as he rolled his eyes again. “It must be such a burden not having to wonder about what will happen next, Old Father Time.” He said sarcastically as the bird chuckled. “What is it I am not seeing?”

“You do not see a bridge? They are something between the mortal and immortal. I did try to sway him from staying there before this happened.” Heimdall tipped a brow at the bird as it ruffled its feathers. The bird looked back at him cocking its head and cawed. “I can only hope I am listened to. I cannot change a mind. Free will is not something any one can change the ability a mind has. He wished to learn. Something I am sure your father instilled in each of you.”

“Yes,” Heimdall groaned as he looked beyond the tree, watching his mother grab Loki as his father’s fist curled into balls. “but that will not change what will happen when Father finds them here. He was going to kill Loki, he may kill me for helping and I….” Heimdall sat up as his vision shifted, his eyes widening as the egg his father had thrown whistled into the Earth’s atmosphere. He curled his lip as the Lady of the Cliffs scrambled from the earth in a furious snarl. Her eyes grew wide and arms flew up as it hit the air. Heimdall turned his head as the flash from the impact nearly blinded him. The hare stood, looking back as the Earth turned black, a plume of ashes rising into the atmosphere after the flames rolled over the world, killing everything in its path.

He turned as the birds wings ruffled, lifting a brow as one of the eggs cracked…

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Freya clung to Loki as he chuckled. The fox dipped his ears back as she leaned away, looking him over as she brushed his fur back. “I am so happy to see you. Why did you decide to return?”

“Heimdall said you wanted to see me. Come, I have something to show you.” Loki chuckled as Freya gave her mate a stern glare. Odin tried to keep his growl under wraps as the fox waved back to the gates. They followed him back to the tree of life where Heimdall stood with his jaw hanging open, watching one of the eggs breaking open. Loki beamed as Freya cupped a paw over her muzzle, ticking her eyes back to Odin as the lion snarled. The fox picked up a tiny creature, licking around the fur on its back. He laughed as it rolled over, a pair of black furless wings uncurling from the front of its body. Black leathery skin with fingers that spread from the wings opened and it curled around Loki’s paw as the dark fur covering its chest puffed out.

Heimdall blinked as Loki took as seat, holding the little thing in his paws as it screeched several times. “It has your fur on its body, your face. A long tail like yours but with no fur? Furless wings like hers too. What is it?”

“An abomination.” Odin growled as he curled his claws. Loki cupped it to his chest, baring his teeth as the lion got closer. Heimdall stepped back as Freya’s hackles rose. “No one but you and I are meant to create life in Asgard Wife! They were never meant to exist!”

“But they do, and you have no right to end any life!” Freya growled as Loki turned his shoulders into a protective crouch with the little creature against his chest.

Heimdall turned his vision as Odin glared at him. “You brought them here! Knowing they may hold something that could spread the darkness!”

Heimdall lifted his head as Loki growled. “I saw no darkness in them, Father. Only a light so bright I could not see beyond it. They are too young to make any choice that I could see into.”

Odin growled as he looked back at Freya and Loki, shaking his head. “For disobeying me you will never have the thing you desire most, Heimdall. They shall be the responsibility of you and your brother if they cause problems in Asgard until I have found a purpose for them. I will not kill them if they live.”

“If they live?” Loki asked with a curled lip as Odin lifted his head.

The lion watched Freya’s ears drop and chuckled as the thing at Loki’s chest kept trying to chew on its own fingers. “They are not Gods. Feed them anything from the gardens here and it would be the same result as when the giants took you. That much energy in a mortal body would cause them to burst into flames and turn to ash. No matter how valiant and brave your efforts to save them were, or how strong they are because they are half God, it would still kill them. Did you learn nothing about mortals while you were there? The Earth is no more and it will be thousands of years before life begins on that planet again. If they could eat mortal food, there is none left to find. They will never rise if they cannot eat. Neither of you were smart enough to consider what you did trying to save them. You have sealed their fate and killed them bringing them here. You may as well call them valkillries. The rule of nine will prevail.”

Loki’s face fell as Odin walked away chuckling. He clutched the tiny animal to his chest and looked at his mother as her ears pinned back. “Mother?”

Freya cringed and stepped closer as Heimdall closed his eyes and turned his head. The wolf sighed as she sat beside him and looked at the little creature he was holding. “The rule of nine. All species that come from the earth will come from the nine we originally created in Asgard. He explained it to me after throwing the egg. Because he placed part of the gods in the eggs, their mortality is based on the number nine and broken into three. If a mortal goes three minutes without air, three days without water, or three weeks without food their life will end. They will rarely live more than ninety-ninety years. It was a way to ensure they could never threaten other life as the life that evolved on the Earth already had.”

The fox looked at the little creature he was holding as his lips curled up and Freya cupped his cheek as he looked back at her shaking his head. “But… they are my children.”

“I am sorry, Loki. I cannot change these laws. Not even gods can change death once it has come to claim a life…”

\-------------------------------------------------

Heimdall leaned forward, cupping his face in his paws as his ears pinned to his back. He lifted his eyes as a black bird landed in front of him tilting its head to one side, and frowned. “I could not watch any longer. The only thing this has brought to Asgard is death.”

The bird dipped its head and flapped its wings. “It is the fate of all living things.”

Heimdall scowled at the bird. “It is not a fate that is common in Asgard. Even though there have already been several who have died, Loki refuses to leave them. He sits and watches them grow weaker until they are gone. He is overjoyed at each birth as much as he is filled with the sorrow of knowing they will die. The darkness I see growing in him is unlike anything a god has ever known. It is cruel.”

“He gives them all he has to give. That is the way of a parent. To love the life they create, even if they know it will end. It is what bridges lives together.”

“It is the worst bridge I have ever seen. Our parents have only had to do this once. Loki was the only one in Asgard who faced mortality and they poured….” He sat up and curled his nose as the bird tipped its head, grinning at him.

“Have you a thought, Heimdall?”

The hare snapped his eyes back to the bird and scowled. “Like you don’t already know my thought! Will it work?” The bird chuckled as Heimdall sat up with a glowing smile. The buck jumped and took off through the gates, racing to find his mother. He burst into her chamber panting as she turned in her chair. “MOTHER!” The wolf puffed a breath holding a paw to her chest. “I think I know how to save Loki’s children!”

Freya gave him a sad smile and a patient look as he tried to catch his breath. “Heimdall, Loki has tried everything. Nothing he has done has changed the outcome.”

“Yes yes, I know, but if you could make something soft with your magic that the Valkyries could use to eat, could we not give them part of ourselves? Use it to make a bridge, so they weren’t eating the fruit and wine here, directly? Like you and father did when Loki was poisoned by the giant gods? Pour our time and energy into it the way Loki already is, create something solid they could eat that isn’t as potent as what grows here?”

Freya sat up, nodding absently as Heimdall raised his brow. “Perhaps. Meet me at the tree of life.”

Heimdall took off and rushed back to the tree of life, carefully approaching Loki as the fox held a fading life in his paws. He bent to his knees, raising a brow as the fox’s tears fell, nearly moving away as each drop sizzled away from his fur, singeing into the ground as a dying ember. “Loki?”

The fox ticked his eyes to the hare and shuddered as the little creature in his paw whined. He held it to his chest sobbing as another egg broke open. Heimdall sighed as he leaned back, keeping silent as Freya walked to the tree of life. She plucked a small egg from a branch and cupped it in her paws, reshaping and molding it until it looked much more like a pear, softening the outside of the shell as she walked to Loki and Heimdall. The she wolf dipped to her knees and tapped the bottom of it open, smiling as Loki looked at her with flames rolling down his cheeks, still clutching the little animal at his chest. He curled his brow as she pulled one of his paws out, almost jerking away as she pulled a dagger from her waist. “Do you remember how your father and I saved you after we got you back from the giants?”

Loki’s face fell as he shook his head. “I pulled away the extra magic, and gave you part of myself to stabilize what was in our body. Your father gave you part of himself. It made you stronger. We each gave you part of our time, our energy. They may not be able to eat the foods that grow here, but perhaps they can eat the energy we have within us from what we eat? If you are willing to give it. It will be more than your blood, you will have to pour part of your energy, your life force into it.” Loki looked at Heimdall with his lips trembling as he nodded, gritting his teeth as she sliced his paw open. She held the egg under his paw and he clenched his fist, watching the blood and energy from his body filling the egg. Freya handed it to him carefully after cleaning his paw and Loki almost crushed the soft shell as he shook his head. She pulled a small pin from her head that held the adornments in place and stuck it through the bottom creating a hole, carefully moving his paw until it was over the little animal he was holding. Loki watched Freya rubbing it along its little mouth and started giggling as it moved it head back and forth, laughing as its teeth bit into the end of the pear-shaped egg it started suckling on. He watching trying not to shed anymore tears as it curled around the egg and his paw, chuckling at the grunting sounds it was making as it emptied the egg. It huffed several times before it curled up in his paw and closed its eyes in a content purr.

Freya stood smiling as Heimdall cupped a paw over his muzzle, leaning over as he watched Loki petting its head and back. The wolf stuck her nose in the air, belting out a howl that caused all the gods to come to her. She looked around grinning as several eggs hatched, all of them watching Heimdall grab the egg Loki was holding as he took a seat next to his brother. The fox watched in shock as the hare cut his paw open and filled the egg, picking up one of the little animals he stuck on his folded knee. Heimdall shrugged as he looked back at the little creature and brushed the ‘bottle’ over its lips, chuckling as it latched on in a grunting whine.

Loki watched with his mouth hanging open as several of the gods around them started pulling eggs from the tree, each of them grabbing an infant and taking a seat after Freya had altered the eggs from the tree of life. The wolf smiled as she took a seat next to Loki, watching as all the gods put part of their life force, their energy, their time in each egg before they all sat feeding his children. The Gods were laughing and cooing at the little animals as they were fed, and Loki looked back at his mother blinking as she pointed to Heimdall. “Not many have hatched yet. But everyone is willing to help. It was his idea.”

Loki used his palm to wipe is face off as he watched Heimdall laughing at the little animal he was feeding. “Brother? What can I give to repay for this?”

Heimdall looked back at Loki with a smirky grin. “They may be innocent, but their mother was not and everything she had you do here was wrong. She lied. I do not want to see this again. Never lie again and Never- ever- ever - lay with another mortal.”

“You ask too little, Brother.” The fox chuckled as Heimdall raised a brow.

“I mean it, Loki.”

Loki looked around and back to the little animal at his chest smiling. “If that is all you wish, your wish is granted.” He looked back at Heimdall who was grinning as he returned his attention to the infant he was feeding.

All eyes turned as Loki’s eggs lit up, all of them breaking open at the same time. Loki stood and stepped closer, smiling at all the different little noses poking out. “Ugly little things.” Thor said as he curled his lip.

“Hey!” Loki snarled as he looked back at his largest brother, a bull as massive as the trunk of the tree.

Thor laughed. “They look as if they are the worst of you. Little Vampires.”

Loki glanced back giving Heimdall a dirty look as the hare laughed. “They are ugly, Loki. Some of them do not even have noses.”

“We are not calling them vampires.” Loki growled.

“They are yours, but where did they come from?” Thor asked crinkling his nose as he leaned over looking more closely. “You found them where our brother was at?”

Heimdall smirked and Loki narrowed his eyes. “Where my brothers was at. Perhaps we should call them bats.”

“No.” Loki scowled as Heimdall chuckled. The fox’s attention turned as the tiny creature he was holding curled into his chest.

Freya tipped her head and stood, grasping a branch as the tree of life glowed. The eggs in the tree lit up and she giggled as the shells softened and shifted their shape, allowing each god to grab one according to the size of the infant they were picking up from around its roots.

Odin grit his teeth as he watched all his children feeding Loki’s children. He looked up and scowled at the old black bird that had perched behind him on the wall. “You will still not tell me of their purpose, Father Time?”

The bird looked out grinning and shook its head. “Fate is not meant to be known and cannot be understood when it can be changed. Not even a God can do this.”

Odin growled at the bird and clenched his teeth. “I will make my own Fate. No other god was meant to create life. I can see they are already causing a shift in Asgard.”

The bird chuckled as it ruffled its feathers. “They will have a purpose and a place in Asgard. Something that brings everyone together like this cannot be a bad thing, Allfather. If this had been here long ago, perhaps the giants never would have taken Loki. It will teach them, is that not what you wished of all your children?”

Odin frowned as he looked back at the bird. “Teach them what?”

The bird looked back at the tree, smiling as Odin clenched his fists. “A single arrow can be broken easily. Place them all together and it is not so easy a task. Strength lies in all understanding, wanting a common goal and coming together to stand for it. Even the tree of life knows this as it takes in from what was left behind, and offers itself to others.”

Odin growled quietly as he watched the tree bristling above the gods. “I will tolerate this, for a time. Heimdall will lose the thing he loves the most for this and this vision he has will be a curse he cannot change.” He looked back at the bird still scowling.

“Knowing the way of a path is always a curse. That is all living beings really have, Great Allfather. A Path, and A time.” The bird bowed its head slightly and he watched it fly off before he looked back and watched Loki standing under the tree of life.

The fox’s chest was bouncing as he tried to contain his tears, still clutching a tiny creature at his chest as its wings stretched over his paws. Freya stepped closer, reaching up to his face and wiping away the tears that singed her fur. “Mother...”

\---------------------------------------------------------------------

Mimir tilted his head as he pulled a piece of fruit from a tree in the gardens, watching the old black bird dig a grain of sand from its wings. The bird tipped its head and Mimir narrowed his eyes watching it place a grain of sand within a tiny seedling. “It will take thousands of years before that grows into something.” He looked up chuckling as the bird flew into the branch of a tree above him. “Odin will allow it to stay because it grew here. What will it become?” He stepped closer looking up. “You knew of what happened to the fates. There are always three. If Heimdall is seeing into the future…..and this one is meant to stay in the present. Who will carry the past?”

The bird cocked it’s head grinning. “One large enough to have that strength, and carry the weight of the world as it grows.”

Mimir chuckled and shook his head. “I fear I do not wish to know what you are up to, Father Time.” He jumped up on the wall, munching on a piece of fruit as the bird landed next to him, watching Loki standing with Freya under the tree of life. “And what of Loki? You have not made him a fate. If it is not asking too much, what is he meant to be? All I can see from this is chaos.”

The bird chuckled. “Life is chaos Mimir, but there is no life, if there is no hope.”

“Hope.” Mimir chuckled as he leaned his weight into his legs, shaking his head as Loki turned to his mother.

The fox’s chest was bouncing as he tried to contain his tears, still clutching a tiny creature at his chest as its wings stretched over his paws. Freya stepped closer, reaching up to his face and wiping away the tears that singed her fur. “Mother….”

Freya giggled as she ran her muzzle along Loki’s face and looked around at all the Gods. From the smallest to the greatest of the giants had gathered, laughing and talking to each other as they fed the children he’d brought to Asgard. “It is a joy to watch a child growing. You have brought life into Asgard unlike anything seen here before. They are a treasure we will always keep. This is a good bridge.” She tipped her head back to Heimdall still smiling.

The fox looked at Heimdall as Idun threw her trunk up, laughing at the sour face the hare made as the infant he was holding spit up all over his paws. “Nasty.”

“Oh I think I might like having one of these as my own.” Idun cooed as she wiped off Heimdall’s paws, laughing again as he handed her the infant and ‘bottle’, shivering as he made some nasty faces.

Heimdall brushed his paws along his legs and looked up catching Loki staring at him as he kept trying to hold back the tears of flames rolling down his face. The hare dipped his ears back in a slight blush as the fox bowed towards him, smiling as he returned the gesture. Loki sighed as Freya curled around him, closing his eyes as the tree of life lit up and bathed everything in Asgard in a warm glowing light……

**Notes; Fox bats are really cute, but not all Loki’s children with the Lady of the Cliffs were Fox bats. They are all species of bats in Zootopia. Definitions/names- Val; Valiant. Kill; to end. Ries; Rise. (Valkyries) Vam; Of you. To you. Pire(s); The worst. _The worst of you._ (Vampires- no they’re not the kind written about by John Polidori- but I think anyone who read this would get it- they’re just mammals that have a direct lineage to the Gods. Their blood or being bitten would be dangerous for a mortal even after they become mortal themselves – Rabies. There’s no such thing as Vampires in Zootopia they’re a mythical creature- just like here - Think this about covered anything that might have been confusing in the whole story.- But what do I know as another reader is concerned?**


	6. Lone Vigil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You can't always have the one you love...It doesn't make you love them any less.

**Lone Vigil**

The Script; The Man Who Can’t be moved

Thousands of years later;

Heimdall rushed forward, holding all the hope of the worlds in his heart as he cupped the flowers and jet through the gates that led to the gardens. His ears set as he heard Idun screaming. He poked his head around a tree curiously, watching as Loki snarled and shook his head. They were arguing about something, the fruit or how it was being used, and the fox’s ears set as a silken voice drifted on the air. Heimdall’s eyes lit up as a brown eyed vixen came from the wooded area holding a basket filled with the fruits she’d been picking. Loki froze, blinking at her as Idun returned her attention to the fox who’d caused her a headache. The elephant scowled as he stepped around her and was screaming at him as he approached her daughter. The vixen set her ears and stepped back as Loki walked and circled around her. The red eyed fox God locked eyes with her and she moved hesitantly as she tried to back away. Each step she took he cut her off and circled her again as Idun kept screaming. The vixen tried to step to the side and Loki shot her a smirk as he backed her into a large tree and leaned into her space. She dropped what she’d been holding and stayed with her back against the tree as Loki circled around her again. The hare watching felt his heart sink as his brother came to stand in front of her again, when the vixen let her head drop and shied her eyes from him as she smiled.

Heimdall dropped the flowers he’d been carrying and turned away before leaving the Gardens. He sat on the wall listening to the events of Loki trying to make amends for upsetting Idun and Skadi after trying to prove he was worthy of having her, listening as the vixen asked her mother if she could have Loki as her husband, even after the fox had managed to upset several Gods in his attempts to win her and failed. The hare let his head fall as she approached the walls and the entrance of Asgard. He said nothing when she asked if he could open the bridge that led to the natural world. She was trying to explain why she was going, but he’d already heard everything. He knew she was trying to convince her mother that Loki would be a good husband. He knew that she was going to the world to try and pluck the whiskers from a wild Lion to prove how much she wanted him. He knew the curse his father had set on him for helping Loki meant he’d ever have her and all he’d have to watch would tear his heart apart, but he also knew he couldn’t change it, so he’d decided he wouldn’t keep all that was meant to be from happening, lest he cause more harm. Heimdall opened the bridge and walked out to the edge motioning to the Earth as she cocked her ears. The hare sighed as he looked out to the heavens and turned back to her smiling. “Do you know anything of the animals on Earth or hunting?”

The vixen shook her head as she looked at the ground. Heimdall nodded as he pulled the bow and arrow off his back, chuckling as she looked it over. “Come, I will show you the way and teach you. If you wish to get close to a wild lion, you are going to have to feed it first so it will not eat you as a mortal.” The vixen swallowed as he held it out to her. “You will not retain your size once on the Earth. Once we leave the Bi Frost bridge that power will fade unless it is retained intentionally, and since you have chosen to be mortal in this, it will be lost. The mammals there are wild and cannot speak yet.”

The vixen sighed as she took it and his paw, looking around as they stepped onto the bridge. She shivered as they walked and Heimdall chuckled as she glanced back at him. “Why is it so cold, so dark?”

Heimdall shrugged as he looked around. “Space is dark, the space between the worlds is filled with darkness, it is cold because the lights are not strong enough to change it. Space is bigger than all the stars that live in it and the bridges are the roads between the worlds. I do not think anything can make it warmer or light this path.”

The vixen nodded as they hit an area that seemed to pull at her as she looked down. Heimdall laughed as her eyes scanned the area, and smiled as she slid down the end of the trail laughing. He followed and snickered as his feet hit the ground. She walked around in awe and he waited until she faced him again before tipping his head to the bow and arrow she’d taken. “You will have to kill something each day to feed the lion.”

The vixen cringed as he sighed. “Kill?” she asked.

Heimdall shrugged. “All living things must eat. This is how this world is evolving. The other worlds have not reached this point yet, but I don’t see how it could be any different on any other world.”

“Why is this world so warm?” she asked, making him smirk as he looked around. He pointed up and she looked to the sky seeing the moon hanging and shook her head.

Heimdall tipped his brow. “The largest star here warms this world as it turns. This world stays warm because the moon crashed into it, setting a fire in the core of the planet. When they collided, this world was tipped and started spinning. The fire in the core still burns and the moon was caught by the gravity the spinning created. There was a living organism on this world when they collided. Some kind of purple algae. The fires should have killed it, but instead the heat made it start growing everywhere and it took over everything. It changed the air here. The moon stayed circling this world as it spun and kept all the things that were here from floating away. Eventually there was so much water that other things started growing because it stayed so warm and the air had changed.”

The vixen shook her head as she looked around. “I thought Odin destroyed it.”

Heimdall nodded as he looked around. “He did. But it was long before you were born. There was no night then, the days were everlasting so the world was a lot warmer. It kept the core warm even though it did not spin this fast. One side stayed colder but the sun was so bright then it was still lit up. Then a new darkness came, it sprang from the animals that had grown and lived here. Father saw it and destroyed this world because it was spreading. He was afraid that darkness would take over the light and move to other realms and other worlds. I’m the one who swept the dust away and settled the air here.”

“Well, if that happened how are there still animals here?” she asked as she looked around. “Is that why they call you the God of Separation?”

The hare chuckled as he grabbed a tree limb and looked it over. “Yes. I separated the day from night here. Let the sun back in. When Loki and I were younger we used to play tag and hide and seek all the time. I made myself look like part of the tree of life that sits in the center of Asgard with some of mother’s magic.” He tapped a pouch she eyed briefly and nodded. “Loki got angry because he couldn’t find me. He swiped at the tree several times and ran away. He didn’t see that he cut off part of my nose. When I came back to the tree with mother to try and find it so she could fix it, it was gone. The tree of life had taken it and the next day Eggs started growing from the branches. Father used one of the eggs that had grown the largest from the tree to destroy this world. He threw it so hard that it crashed into the planet and set everything on fire. What didn’t burn was buried in a cloud of dust that killed almost everything else. But that same Algae survived again. A few small lizards survived. Father put part of the gods into the egg before he threw it. Many thousands of years later the egg cracked after everything had cooled off. What was inside it flooded this world and killed any larger animals that had evolved again. Some of the smaller ones survived again, but life started over, started evolving into things that look more like us as time passed. Once the egg was open it disintegrated and turned to ash that fell to the bottom of the oceans here and still feeds the waters.

The vixen ticked her eyes around scowling as Heimdall lifted a brow. “That is why it is called the Yggdrasil tree? But the eggs grew from part of you? You have a deeper connection with this world than the others if life began again because of the eggs made from your nose and the tree of life.”

Heimdall looked around smiling. “Perhaps I do.”

“Why must they kill each other?”

The hare chuckled as he scratched his nose. “Because life propels life. The Earth can only provide so much to sustain it. The larger mammals here must eat the smaller to keep their energy just as we eat and drink the fruit in Asgard. They do not kill for cruel or nefarious purposes. They are simply following the laws set when this world was created. Each life is born with a certain amount of energy. That energy must be sustained for life to continue. Life for life. Even those who do not kill other mammals kill. They often kill the plants growing here that they eat. All of it is returned to the Earth after it dies so it can help new things grow. It is a loop, a circle that never ends.”

The vixen took a breath as she looked at the bow and nodded. “Will you teach me?”

Heimdall smiled as he nodded. “You are willing to die to prove he is the right one to your mother? You want him that much?”

The vixen’s cheeks lit up as he kept smiling and dropped his eyes. “You saw what he did, Heimdall. He upset all the gods by taking my mother to Thjazi and I know it could have killed us all without her fruits and wines. I know he went about it wrong, but if he was willing to-”

“I will help you, if it makes you happy and that is what you truly want.” The vixen jumped up giggling as she hugged around him. He laughed as he took the bow and arrow, showing her all the pieces and parts before he began to teach her how to shoot. He spent several weeks with her as she learned, until she had reached a point she no longer needed him. The hare returned to Asgard, sitting on the wall and keeping his eyes on her as she started feeding a wild lion the meat she’d hunted for. He heard the other Gods coming and going, he heard Idun crying for the daughter she thought lost. His eyes never left the vixen and his ears only ticked once, at the sound of Odin screaming. He listened as his father forbad all Gods from mating with another species after finding out the fox had laid with Angrboda, who had birthed Hel, Jormungandr and Fenrir, who had all come of age and were causing a great deal of problems. Though Heimdall ground his jaw in anger, his eyes never left the vixen still hunting in the natural world. Several months passed until she finally plucked the whisker from a wild lion and returned to the place the bridge would open. She called out and Heimdall laughed as she jumped up and down, showing him the whisker as he held out a paw. She took his paw, looking up at him before joining him on the bridge and making their way back to Asgard.

Idun sobbed as her daughter stood before her. The vixen asked for the potion that would turn Loki into a good fox and the elephant shook her head. “I thought you dead! If all you need is time to get what you wish for, you are a sign of time and shall always be known as such. If all you need is time, I believe you will always get what you fight for. A victorious girlfriend! Sigyn, go and find the husband you fought for!”

Heimdall let his head drop with a small smile as he walked away, listening to the vixen rushing out to find Loki as he retook his position looking over the worlds and guarding Asgard. He looked up swallowing as a Raven perched in one of the longest branches of the tree of life, hanging not far from his head. “Old father, is there something I can help you with today?”

The bird looked at him with hollowed black eyes and smiled. “You ask if I need help and yet you know I know all and see all? You would move if I asked it of you?”

The hare shrugged as he returned his attention to the worlds. Heimdall looked back at the bird smirking and shook his head. “I know you need of nothing, Old Father. That does not mean I would not offer. If you do, I will be here. At the moment, I have no reason to be moved unless I receive a sign that something is amiss.”

The bird tipped his head and nodded. “I shall leave you to your musings then, little one.” Heimdall nodded as the bird took to flight, and returned his attention to the sounds of all creation, keeping his vigil over the nine realms…..

**Notes: Science and mythology and religion here. The egg was the meteorite that hit the earth, it should all be self-explanatory with the meteor and the world being destroyed and later flooded by the contents of the egg when it cracked. The algae Heimdall is talking about is based on Cyanobacteria, commonly known as blue green algae. It is believed to be the oldest living oxygen producing organism on the Earth and one of the contributing factors to life on the planet because of the air it produces.**


	7. The Cost Of Music

**The Cost of Music**

**Loki and Heimdall: Daughtry; Battleships**

A fox and a hare stumbled along a long beach, rolling over each other grunting and growling while waves crashed along the rocky shore, rushing the sandy beach as the buck stood clenching his fists. He heaved as he shook his head, watching the fox get to his feet again and scowling as they locked eyes. “This is a fight I will not lose, Loki. I do not know what has possessed you to do something like this, maybe father is right about you.”

The fox snarled as his eyes glazed over and shot forward growling as he threw a fist, knocking the hare in the head, turning as the buck rolled into the sand and over again as he leaned up on his paws. “Did that hurt your feelings?” Heimdall asked as he grit his teeth and got to his feet again. “Good, then you know how this will hurt her.”

“I did not do it to hurt Mother!” Loki screamed as he trembled.

“THEN GIVE IT BACK BEFORE SHE KNOWS IT IS GONE, BECAUSE IT WILL HURT HER! YOU KNOW HOW MUCH SHE LOVES THAT THING! SHE IS YOUR MOTHER!”

“I have my reasons brother. They are not to hurt her.”

“THEN EXPLAIN YOURSELF!”

Loki shook his head trying to catch his breath as his eyes stayed on his brother. “I cannot.”

The hare frowned heavily as his jaw clenched several times. “Then I cannot stop.” He bound forward, rolling, and Loki’s eyes shot open as the hare's feet planted into his chest, throwing him back as the hare stood again. The fox groaned as his back hit a large lump of rocks and fell forward cringing as his teeth ground together. They had been fighting for days and Heimdall stomped to him as Loki tried to get to his feet again, his elbows nearly giving out as they shook under his weight. Heimdall grabbed the scruff of his neck as he rolled over and the fox’s eyes lit up as his fur caught fire. The buck dropped both brows angrily as the heat coming from the fox threw off the cold from the damp sand and cold ocean air around them. “I may not know your path, but I do know how to counter that.” He threw the fox into the water and twisted his lip as a seal came back in with the waves, rolling over on the shore as he jumped and looked down at it glaring. Loki fell out of the form and shook his head as Heimdall growled and threw his fist into his jaw again. “Give. It. Back. To. Her!”

The fox’s head shot to each side as every word garnered another fist. He looked back to his brother breathing heavily as his arms fell to the sides and shook his head again. “I cannot. Heimdall, please. I do not wish to fight any more.”

Heimdall dropped him and let his head hit the sand as he stood up heaving. Loki’s red fur waved in a dying flame and he watched the fox huff each breath as he shook his head. “You haven’t even the strength to shift again or start your own fire. If it means so much to you to hurt her, then I am done with you. If you will not give back what you have stolen, nothing in any world means anything to you.” He stormed away leaving the fox laying in the sand.

Heimdall made his way back to Asgard, an angry face and solid decision set in his mind as he knocked on a door. A she wolf opened it looking down at him and raised her brows curiously as he looked to the side. “Mother, Loki has the Brisingamen.”

The wolf folded her arms over her chest and dropped her brow as she shook her head. “Why?” she asked as he curled his brow and shook his head.

“You know he has it?” Heimdall asked and watched as she nodded slowly.

“My chamber was locked the night it went missing. The only way anyone… the only one who could have gotten in here was Loki. I suspect he turned himself into a fly or something small enough to get in because there are no others here who could become so small. I want to know why.” Heimdall shook his head as she looked him over. “He would not tell you?” he sighed as he dropped his ears. “You were fighting again?” He looked back to her frowning as she smiled softly. “I love the necklace Heimdall, it is the favored of all my possessions. A gift for giving them love and knowledge, but it is not worth fighting over.”

The hare pinched the bridge of his nose and turned. She flicked her ears as she heard him muttering. “That is not the point, Mother.”

Her eyes narrowed as she watched him walk away and the wolf closed the door burying her growl so he wouldn’t hear it as he left. Heimdall made his way to another home keeping a dead face as he knocked on another door. It opened and a vixen peeked out from behind the door as he locked eyes with her. She looked around shaking her head before she turned to him again. “Heimdall? What’s wrong? Where is Loki?”

The hare dropped his head and closed his eyes as a pool of regret settled in his chest. “Forgive me, Sigyn.” He shoved the door open and she screamed as he wrapped his arms around her and bound away from the home with her in his arms…….

Freya stormed the hall to her husband’s chamber and the lion turned as she growled. “YOU HAD LOKI STEAL THE BRISINGAMEN! WHY!”

The lion narrowed his eyes on her as he raised his head. “Five days you were missing and those jewels mean more to you than anything else. Five days you spent with DWARFS!”

“THEY ARE NOT DWARFS! THEY ARE MORTALS! THEY CALLED THE NECKLACE THAT FOR ME BRINGING THEM THE KNOWLEDGE AND TEACHING THEM TO SING OF US! THEY NEED FAITH WHEN THERE IS NOTHING ELSE TO HOLD ONTO! JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE SMALLER THAN US GIVES YOU NO RIGHT TO LABEL THEM AS….” She stopped and tipped her head as he glared at her. “There is another reason, isn't there? This isn’t about me or them, is it?”

Odin stood frowning as he held his head high. “You will unleash a wrath upon the world for disobeying me, Loki will bring it back to me and I will return it once you have satisfied the transgression for going against what I have laid as law. You gave them music! Gods do not share with mortals and mortals do not know of our knowledge beyond what I have given them already!”

Freya shook her head as Odin curled his lip. “What did you threaten Loki with, to get him to do this?”

“I need not threaten him with anything. It is his nature.”

Freya growled as she stepped to her husband and looked up at him with vibrating lips. “He is your son as much as mine, and he is NO THIEF!”

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Heimdall sat a cup on the table as the vixen’s paws shook. She looked back to him hiccupping as he sat next to her again. “He will never change will he? How can I…Why do I love someone who stole from his own mother? I would have come if you had asked.”

The hare sighed as he let his eyes fall from her crinkled brow. “Yes, but I needed someone to see me take you so he would find out. I offered you two things the day you married him. Do you remember?” She nodded as she sniffled and curled her paws around her cup. “I offer it again.”

The vixen looked back at him and blinked tears away as he dropped his head. “I have seen how much seeing the future hurts you, Heimdall. I have seen the toll it has taken on your soul and the sorrow you carry for not being able to change it. We should live in the moment, in the present. There is no hope when you take away the possibility of not being able to make the future or change it.”

The buck nodded as he turned his head, hiding everything behind a solid face. “He wasn’t always like this, Sigyn. I am not allowed to tell the future. I cannot see his because he won’t allow it, but I could see yours. I may not be able to tell you of it, but I can give you advice if you let me look. I can also tell you how he became the way he is.”

The vixen rubbed her temples and bit her lip before she stood up and held out her paws. Heimdall stood slowly as he stepped closer and took them hesitantly as she curled her fingers around his. The buck moved slowly, getting closer to her than he had ever been as he placed his head against hers and closed his eyes. He pulled away slowly wrinkling his face and shaking his head as she opened her eyes, watching him turn so she couldn’t see his expression twisting. He could look no further than a few years of her being without Loki. The path that took her away from him left her alone and she became bitter. She closed off all others and locked herself away from everyone, even forsaking Idun, the mother who’d taken her as her own. Heimdall sighed as she touched his shoulder, the feeling of her love for his brother nearly overwhelming him as he closed his eyes. “Heimdall?”

“Sit down, Sigyn. I will tell you how he came to be the way he is.” The vixen retook her seat as he pulled all his strength into keeping a straight face. “Before mammals began to grow in the world there were others. Father called them Titans because they grew so large. Reptiles. It was long before you were born. Loki was young and curious. Mother told him to go look around and see for himself. But none of us knew how things really were there. He met a Lady. She was nearly three times his size. The largest of her kind. We lost him somehow. He just wasn’t there anymore. We found out that she had done something to him.” When Sigyn shook her head Heimdall sighed.

“He would not tell us. But after I met her I pieced together that she offered him something. Part of herself. She asked him to eat it to prove that he loved her. Before that happened, she cast a spell on him. It made him become…infatuated with her, obsessed and unable to leave her side. He followed her everywhere and she convinced him to stay hidden. She was using a kind of dark magic we had never seen to keep him hidden, even from me. He moved so silently, so unnaturally and he never made a sound, he even stopped talking. I found him alone in the darkness of the Earth. He was buried under so much ground that the cave he was in echoed loudly enough that no one could hear anything there. But it wasn’t the Earth that had hidden him, it was her. She had some kind of spell around, and in the cave that changed the way the sound moved. Father wanted him to come home and said he was to stay away from her. We watched the world and all the animals in it get so big they threatened to leave it and venture out into the other worlds and realms. Their size was not the problem, it was the way she was changing them. They began to control the elements and started tearing the world apart as they played with the powers of the Earth. They became dark and uncontrollable, and Loki came and went. Father was in the great hall trying to recover from learning. Loki started lying, cheating at things, telling stories that caused us to fight among ourselves…and then he was gone again. What he ate was… I tried to convince him that it was wrong, but after he had eaten it he became….dark.”

Sigyn tipped forward as Heimdall closed his eyes. “She had a scar on her chest. After he changed. I confronted her about what she had done, she thought it funny that he ate part of her heart. She wanted to be immortal and steal all the powers of creation. Be able to control life and death. It took a great deal of time to find Loki again. When I did, he was laden with weight and carrying a heavy burden I thought might kill him. His form had not changed but something inside him had. When I told father, he said the world would be destroyed. That all the darkness in it would be burned and then he would drown it to start it over again. He forbade me to tell Loki…but, he is my brother.” Sigyn cupped his paw as he shook his head and fought tears. He sucked in a breath and straightened his back as he sat up and blinked it away. “I found him again, but he refused to leave. It was as if he….he was guarding something. He had changed again, but he looked the same as he did before he left, but he was not. When I told him father was going to destroy the world he refused to leave. It was the first time I had ever seen him think of something other than what would benefit him. I asked why and he showed me a cavern. It was warm under the Earth and thick with the scent of something I didn’t recognize. They were everywhere. Thousands of them, all different sizes and so….strange.”

Sigyn tipped her head as he looked to the fire. “She was called the Lady of the Cliffs because she lived above the rest of the world and could fly. But where she entered the caves was only a door that led to the center of the earth. A place hot enough to keep all their eggs warm, where the flames could not harm Loki.”

Sigyn sat up straightening her face as she looked around in thought. “He is the father and she was the mother of the Valkyries?”

“Perhaps. I don’t even want to think about how that worked because Loki never shifted his form while he carried them. I agreed to help him only after touching several of them and feeling their energy, seeing they were not evil. They were as innocent as he was when she changed him.” She gave him a funny look and he chuckled as he shook his head. “Oh, he was always a troublemaker and had a way of confusing others and pulling pranks, but he was just playing, he wasn’t like this until after she got her claws in him. I agreed to help him move them to Asgard and save them. So we did, and he agreed never to return to the Earth and mate with another mortal so there would never be any other Demigods.”

The vixen let her eyes drop as her shoulders fell. “But he still had other children.”

Heimdall shrugged. “I did not think to include any other stipulations. If I had known about that being possible with other Gods, I would have included it. He also agreed never to lie to me, though I could not convince him to let me see his path. I could not say leave them Sigyn, not seeing how much he cared for them and knowing they were innocent.”

The vixen nodded as she took a breath. “It is not something I understand.”

Heimdall chuckled as he finally sat down. “Not many of us do. After Loki took the shape of a mare and brought forth Sleipner father forbade him from shifting to a female and having children like that again, he is the only God who has ever sired or birthed children in a physical form, besides the mother of Fenrir and the those he laid with. Eating her heart put a darkness in him and gave him the ability to change forms and sexes. None of us really know how much dark magic she taught him. He tries to fight it most of the time, even agreeing to help father protect the wall and distract Svadilfari by becoming a mare to lure him from the wall, that led to Sleipner’s birth.”

“It makes no sense, why did he…have Sleipner if he knew it would upset Odin? I thought Odin loved Sleipner.”

“He does love Sleipner, but Loki is no different than the rest of the gods. He has no more power over life than death. We cannot bring one back from death any more than we could stop life. It could be snuffed once at a certain point, but life is like death. It is an unstoppable force that is untouchable once it begins. It hides in the darkness where no one can reach it when it starts to grow. Loki will not outright defy father. He may be sneaky about things, but that is not how he thinks, and Father understood it. But you have to take the Valkyries and what they can do, Jormungandr, hel, and especially Fenrir into account.”

“Oh. Yes, that I can see.” She nodded as she rubbed her forehead again. “He fights it?”

“Yes.” Heimdall nodded as he turned in his seat. “More for you than anything or anyone else, so I do not understand why he has done what he has done.”

The vixen turned shaking her head as she closed her eyes. “But even I was not enough….” Heimdall stood and left the table, bringing back a pitcher of wine he sat on the table and she looked at it shaking her head. “I am not hungry right now.”

“Try to eat something, Sigyn. If you do not mind, I need to get some air for a moment. I will be right back. Will you stay?”

She nodded absently as she looked at the cup in front of her and shook her head. “I will not go back to one who would treat their mother so poorly. Not when I have one who has loved me the way she has, not when his mother is the reason I had such a wonderful childhood.”

The hare nodded as he stepped to the door. “Forgive me, Sigyn. I did not mean to scare you and would never harm you.”

“I know.” She mumbled as he stepped out and locked the door, letting his head drop as he caught the sound of her sobbing again.

The hare hurried away and stopped, looking out over the bridges he’d opened as he sat on the wall and cupped a paw over his eyes.

“Little one.”

His head snapped up and he wiped his cheeks off as a shadow wafted around and settled next to him, taking the form of a midnight black raven with a small hourglass hanging from its neck as it perched beside him. “Hello, Old Father.” He sighed as he leaned his head against the wall.

“Love is a horrid thing when you know you will never hold the one who has your heart.” The old raven sighed. His voice was raspy with age and laced with wisdom as his head cocked to one side.

The hare turned his eyes to the bird and tipped a brow as its beak curled into a grin. “What would you know of love? You are but a shadow and have always been.”

“Even a shadow can love, Heimdall. From afar of course. It is how you show love that matters, not that it is returned to you. I take her gifts all the time to help her be happy. Love is a war at times. It is give and take. She has given me more than I will ever be able to return to her. I wish only for her to retain the innocence she holds so she will always be happy. Love is a war that makes no sense, so you must make your own sense of it. The question is, do you love her enough to help her be happy? Can you give her something of yourself knowing it will never be returned? Do you love her, or your brother enough to give them such a thing?”

The hare looked off fighting tears as he shuttered. “I love them both enough to wish for their happiness. That does not mean I can see it. Loki will not let me see his path and I cannot bear to look at hers again. Not when I saw her so unhappy without him, not when I know what it will take for her to…”

“Hehehe. You cannot say it can you?”

“You laugh at my pain and broken heart?”

“No little One. I laugh because you believe he cannot change.”

“I do not want him to hurt her any more than he has. How can he change when he has that…darkness in him?”

“I _am_ darkness, little one. Anyone can change. Would you like to see me prove the point?” The raven asked as he cocked his head, grinning with a twinkle in his eyes. The hare shrugged as he nodded and watched the bird shoot into the air.

Heimdall jumped from the wall and watched as the raven flew overhead, letting his jaw drop as it dive bombed into the ground. He threw his arms up as feathers flew and looked up blinking as the wafts of shadows swirled into a dark shape that shifted as stars lit within it, a thick robe uncurling as an old vixen appeared, smirking in front of him. She held an hourglass in one paw that she sat on her nose like a thick pair of glasses and he blinked as the moon rocked back and forth in her chest like the pendulum of an old cock. Heimdall lifted a brow and narrowed his eyes. “You think changing your sex and species will prove your point? He does it constantly!”

The old vixen chuckled as she shook her head. “Heimdall. I chose to change and have many times before. I have been a shadow since the dawn of time, and changed because of mortals. I change now because I choose to. Do you not comprehend the depth of this? It only takes a spark, to start a fire. Wait…”

The hare curled his brow as she held her arms up and stepped back as two more ravens landed on each of her extended arms. He tilted his head curling his lip as each bird seemed to roll its head against hers when she tipped hers to them. “Huginn and Munnin are yours? Not fathers? You are… their father? Mother? I do not understand Old Fa…what in the realms am I supposed to call you now?!”

The old vixen smirked as she tipped her arms and he watched the ravens fly off as his whiskers twitched. “I have held every memory, every thought, since life began, Heimdall. They belong to every living creature who has had a thought and kept a memory. How could they not be mine when I was before they were? They are memory and thought, I am not their mother or their father. They simply are a reality of all life. What do they call me? The mortals?”

Heimdall shook his head with a confounded look on his face as she raised her brows. “Uhm, Father Time?” She nodded as he held his paws open and waved to her new form.

“What do I cause to all mortality?” she asked him as she giggled.

“Age?” he asked as she nodded happily.

“So, what shall my name be now?”

“Age…old age. There are two names for it. But if you have chosen the form of a fox and are talking about what the mortals call you, the one you will use will have to be something….” He rolled his eyes as she chuckled again. “Growing old with Grace.”

“Very good, little one!”

The hare scowled as he tipped his head. “Do not patronize me, Grace. I am in no mood to be treated like a child.”

“I treat you as I treat all others in my age and wisdom, Heimdall. I can be friend, or enemy.” The hare sighed as he motioned for her to continue. “Now, if I have been something else since the dawn of time and can change, why can he not?” Heimdall sighed as he ran his paws down his face. “He has already changed Heimdall, it is just incomplete. If you wish for both their happiness, you must be the one who leads them to it.” The old vixen looked at him gently as his eyes shifted and smiled. “You know you will never have her. If you cannot hold the one you love, share it with others and express it through all the other actions you take.”

Heimdall frowned as he looked back at her. “How has he changed? I have not seen it!”

Grace stepped forward and lowered her head as Heimdall glared at her. “You have not seen it because you choose not to. I saw you going to her the day they met, ready to tell her she was the one you loved, hoping what your father cursed you with was not true because of the eye you swallowed. I saw you drop the flowers you had picked for her as you watched your brother arguing with her mother, until he saw her and stepped away. You watched him do the first thing that was an indicator of the change and you still do not understand it, because you do not wish to see it.”

“What did he do?! He ignored Idun, he upset her and made Sigyn uncomfortable!”

“And yet you fetched her when they all thought she was lost to the natural world trying to make him hers. Even after she broke your heart by choosing your brother and fought to make him hers.” Heimdall turned his head as he closed his eyes. “What did your mother create him from?” she asked and the hare sighed as he deadpanned her.

“The moon. I was there. How could I not know that and what does that have to do with….” He blinked and she smiled as his face fell.

“What did you watch him doing with Sigyn? With Idun?”

Heimdall dropped his head as he swallowed the lump in his throat. “It was as if he could not hear Idun at all. Sigyn stood there, trying to back away as he circled her, unsure of how to move as he walked around her with each movement she made. He was created from the moon…he does not even know the significance of what he was doing does he?”

“No, he does not. But you do, do you not, Heimdall? What was the moon before it met the Earth?” Grace asked as she lowered her head smiling.

Heimdall nodded as he fought the sting in his eyes. “It was a rogue, a wandering planet or asteroid that had no….home. Until it crashed into the Earth. He was offering to make her his world. The thing his life would revolve around. He follows the same pattern as the moon, before they each became part of each other.”

“Then you already know the only way to change him.”

“When they collided they nearly destroyed each other! How could she contain that?! He is one of the strongest among us with just his natural powers, that is not to mention all the others he has gained and what else lies hidden in him! That darkness - It may kill her!”

“Think Heimdall, there is no telling how many others the Moon bumped into before it finally found its place. Each one changed it. It only took one to change it permanently. There is a similarity between Sigyn and the Lady of the cliffs that may be the only reason she can do this.”

“WHAT SIMILARITY? THAT FEMALE WAS EVIL! SIGYN IS EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE! COMPLETELY INNOCENT AND THERE IS NOTHING ABOUT THEM THAT IS SIMILAR EXCEPT THAT THEY ARE BOTH…..female.” he petered off as he gawked at the older vixen.

Grace looked at him grinning as she shook her head. “She was not born as all the others, nor were you and Loki.

Heimdall tipped his head scowling as she smirked. “What difference does it make how we were created and born?”

The vixen shook her head as she picked up his paw. “Do you know the mortals call you the God of white? That they call you the shining God, the God of light, because when the light hits you, you appear to glow?” he nodded as she looked over his fur. “Did your mother ever tell you how they created you?” he shook his head as she looked over his fur. “You are the watcher of all the worlds Heimdall, the guardian of Asgard and all its treasures. Each god was created using one thing, You and Loki were created using more than one thing. Your parents took a piece of each world, from each realm when they created you and placed it within you. That is why you can hear even the grass as it grows. You have white fur because nearly all the worlds were cold when you were born. All but one world. Your brother holds the power of fire, the power of creation, and you hold the power of ice. It is why he cannot burn you. But the planets they took other things from, where life had begun to grow is why you have such a warm heart, why your eyes are purple. They came from the algae that changed the air on the earth that evolved into the flowers that grow there now. You are both more than what you appear to be and hold more power than you know of. Perhaps Sigyn is more than just… a God. She is stronger than you think little one, and so are you. It is your choice to tell her, Heimdall. You must give them both the choice to make, if you make that choice, remember that fire can warm and brighten the darkest of paths and ice can change its course. Every cold and darkened path can be bright, when there is hope. You must make the fire work.”

The hare watched her shift into a dark waft of air and slip into the shadows as he fought the trembling in his chest. “What in all the worlds does that mean?! Grace!?” He caught his breath and sighed before he squared his shoulders as he started walking back to his burrow.

The hare stepped through the door after unlocking it, letting his ears tick as he caught her sniffling again. She straightened as he stepped to the table and took a seat. “I will tell you how to truly make him yours, Sigyn. How to turn him into the fox you know he can be.” She sat up raising her brows as he closed his eyes and swallowed his own emotions. “You must understand what he is….. Loki was created from the fires of creation. The fire that started when the Moon crashed into the Earth. Both worlds changed each other. The Earth took part of the Moon, there are pieces of the earth still in the moon as well. The moon is…like a father. It left a large piece of itself with the Earth. There would be no Mother Earth without it. The Moon stays watching over the world and the life that sprung forth that she carries still after they collided, guarding her and their children, the life they created while she continues to hold him in her grasp. But the moon has just as much sway over her, even though they never meet again. It moves everything in her as it circles the world, never taking its eyes from her. The earth will shy from the moon's gaze, but always turn to face him again. It is push and pull, give and take. If it were not equal it would not work.”

Sigyn shook her head as Heimdall ran his paws down his ears, flattening them to his head. “Why is that so important?” she asked as he looked to the ceiling.

“This will be the most difficult thing you have ever done, Sigyn. You will have to take something from him, something he would never give anyone else, and give him something you would never give anyone else.”

“What do you mean I will have to give him something and take something from him?” she asked as she shook her head.

The hare closed his eyes. “You will have to go against your own nature. You are quiet and sweet, too forgiving, always there for him when he screws up, loyal. You can no longer be passive, at least not until the rest has played out. You must be forceful, demanding, and tell him in detail exactly what you want of him, and break the law Odin has set for all of us.”

Her face dropped as his eyes fell to the table. “It is forbidden!”

Heimdall looked her in the eyes as his ears set straight. “I know how to get around the law. I have learned much from my brother when it comes to words and how they are used. Father stated that no species, no God was ever to mate with one not of its own kind. You and Loki are the same kind. You must give him the choice, Sigyn. You must take all his control, and he must let you have it of his own will. It is not what will be the most difficult for you to handle.” Her brows rose as her mouth fell open slightly, and she shook her head as the hare leaned forward again. “You must take the darkness he wonders in and fights away from him. You must take all... his power.”

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**Notes; Loki and Heimdall fought over the necklace that belonged to Freya. Loki stole it on the request from Odin after discovering she had spent five nights with the dwarves to obtain it- significantly altered here but close enough. He was the only one who could get into her locked chamber by changing into something small enough to fit through the cracks. (A Fly) Odin told her for her actions she would have to unleash disasters on the world as punishment.**

**Sigyn was the most precious thing to Loki in the first section of Think Like a Fox and the ‘object’ Heimdall stole to get the necklace back. No clue what Brisingamen means, but in my head I saw- bring- sing of men and rising of men, (Music can lift the spirit) so Freya taught them music in the story instead of doing _something-else_. She knew Loki stole it and that Odin had him do it. In this story the gods often refer to mortals as dwarfs because they are so small. In actual Norse mythology they were dwarfs.**

**Titans; if they were there before the egg/meteor fell and are or will be referred to twice as different things in this story….All life on Earth grew from things brought to the world through other things falling, the largest living animals on the planet sprouted from the tiniest organisms- Titans were elemental beings and from elements Dinosaurs grew.**


	8. Drawn Lines

**Drawn Lines**

Michael William Smith; I Will Carry You (Hrk - nope never gonna grow on me)

Loki woke many hours later, the night air chilling his bones as he looked to the fading stars and tried to roll over. Not one thing about his physical being didn’t ache as he hobbled to his feet and clutched the rocks, using them to lift his weight as he stood groaning. His head turned as he heard flapping and he looked up to see a large pair of black eyes and charred red fur looking down at him with a tipped brow. “Archimedes? What are you doing here?” he asked as the animal tipped a brow.

“Looking for my father, of course.” He smirked as the fox looked up at him and chuckled. “You seem to need us more than we need you anymore.”

Loki groaned again as he rolled and let his back rest against the wall of rocks he’d used to stand. “I wish it were so …”

Archimedes narrowed his eyes and sighed as he jumped from the rock and stood in front of his father. “Do you need passage back to Asgard, Father?”

Loki took a deep breath and clutched his aching chest as the image of a pair of large feet sprung to mind with the wince of leaning forward. “Perhaps in this instance I do, but I am not sure I will be permitted to enter.”

“You fought with Uncle again? That seems to be an increasing habit of late. Why do you always let him win in a physical battle?”

“One I wish was not so increasing.” Loki grunted as the animal in front of him nodded, watching him rub his aching ribs again. “Why do you believe I let him win?”

Archimedes gave him an incredulous glare and Loki laughed as he shrugged. “I do not always win even when I do fight at strength. He is my brother and he is in the right. He could beat me into death and I would still do no serious harm. He is faster than I am in some areas and stronger in others, it levels itself out.”

“I do not think you will have a problem getting home, Father. No one has seen Heimdall since you both left.”

The fox tilted his head as his brow furrowed. “No one has seen him? He left me many hours ago.”

Loki waited until Archimedes turned and dipped slightly. The larger animal held a paw out as Loki stepped into it and grabbed the fur on his back, pulling himself up and wrapping his arms around his neck.

“I cannot hold you father, you must keep yourself upon my back.”

“I think I have the strength for that. If I fall it may be a blessing at this point.”

“One should never say such things.” Archimedes growled.

Loki chuckled. “Then I shall hold my tongue in an angel’s presence.” Archimedes rolled his eyes as Loki let his head hit his back. “Home please. All I wish to be right now is sleeping.” Archimedes tipped his head and Loki smirked as a large set of black furless wings opened and lifted them from the ground.

They landed softly and Loki slid from his back and started slumping to his den. He waved as the winged animal flew off and entered his home sighing as he closed the door. “SIGYN?” He curled his lip as he looked around and furled his brow when he found no trace of her. It was unusual for her not to rush to him when he returned from any journey, especially if he’d been injured. The fox shook his head as he made his way back to their room and looked around again. The sight of the bed they shared lured him closer until he fell into it and closed his eyes. “She must be with her mother again…..” he mumbled before he fell into silence…..

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Freya growled as she turned and looked at the animal in front of her. An old vixen stood beside him as the she wolf clenched her fists. Archimedes shook his head as the wolf nearly growled. “You should let him have it if that is what he threatened him with Grand -Mother.” The wolf shook her head as her teeth ground together and started to storm from the room as Archimedes grabbed her shoulder. “Please, Grand -Mother. We all know what he has lost for us. Let us give this back to him.”

Freya looked to the vixen and dropped her head as she closed her eyes. “Why? Just because e I gave them music and … He told Loki he would cast you all out? He would cast out all the Valkyries and Sigyn, simply because she was not born as we were? That he would never see Sigyn again if he did not do this? He knows it would kill Idun. He did this to save all of you?”

Archimedes sighed as he nodded and let his head fall. “Grand -Mother. We know our fate. We are tied to it as heavily as the stars are tied to the heavens. We will be cast out in many years’ time because of what has already happened. Nothing will change it. Let us at least give him her. We would not be if it were not for the father who saved us, for the Grand- Mother and Grand All Father who allowed us to stay. For the Uncle who helped our father raise us. No matter the path, there is still life. None of us wish to fight any longer. We will fall willingly when the time comes for us to be cast away to avoid any further fighting and spare everyone the pain of it.”

Freya looked to the old vixen and bounced as her shoulders rolled. “You changed because of this?”

Grace tipped her head slightly as Freya took a seat shaking her head. “I changed to help.” The wolf let several tears slip as she looked between them. A striking resemblance laid between the old vixen and the animal standing next to her, with the exception of a much longer muzzle and large wings that curled into longer fingers. “Odin will not honor this if he knows we have been speaking behind closed doors. I ask only that you be what you are, Freya. It is your choice.”

Freya sucked in a breath and nodded. “I will speak of nothing and act as if we did not discuss this. Grace is what you go by now?” The old vixen nodded as Freya wiped off her cheeks. “He is a fool not to see things as they truly are.”

Grace tipped her head again, bowing slightly before they both turned at the balcony window. The vixen blew away as a shadow and the winged animal took to flight as she curled her arms around herself shaking her head. “A damned fool……..”

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Loki rolled over groaning and sat up wringing his arms out, trying to stretch the kinks out of his legs. He stood and let his head fall as the weight of it pulled the muscles in his neck, and made his way back through their home looking for Sigyn again. It made no sense that he couldn’t find her. She was always there waiting for him. He rolled his shoulders at the strange thought that she may still be with her mother after he’d slept for so long, that she couldn’t know he’d already returned. The fox straightened himself out and left their den, wandering around until he caught Tyr at a passage that led to the main hall. “TYR!?” The horse flicked his ears and shifted his eyes as Loki stood taller. “Have you seen Sigyn?”

The horse chuckled as he shook his head grinning. “You managed to upset the only one who harbors you no ill will, did you not?”

Loki blinked as the horse laughed. “I upset Sigyn? She never gets upset.”

“No Brother. You managed to upset Heimdall. He took her screaming from your den last night.” Loki’s eyes grew as the horse turned laughing. He turned and started to run, but was halted by a booming roar.

“LOKI!”

The fox swallowed as his ears folded to his head and cringed as Odin stepped in his path. “Father, I do not have time to talk right now, there is some-”

“Give me the necklace or I will follow through with what I have already made clear.” The lion curled his lip as Loki ticked his eyes around and dropped his head. “I will cast them out if you do not obey me!”

Loki closed his eyes as he kept his ears pinned back. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like for Sigyn to be in the mortal world. She would never survive among the mammals who were still warring among themselves and trying to become civil. “Father, why did you have me do this?”

Odin scowled as he narrowed his eyes. “Your mother should have listened and I knew you could after disregarding so many other things you were taught and told not to do. It is in your nature.”

“Swear Sigyn will never be cast out father, no matter what else happens.”

“You are in no position to bargain, Loki.”

“What harm could she cause, Father?”

The lion dipped lower as Loki lifted his head and met him eye to eye. Odin narrowed his eyes as he looked him over. The fox was shocked as he nodded. “I do not see her ever causing a problem. Give it to me without any further delay and I will agree to this.”

Loki had half a mind to question why he agreed to it, but his feet were already bouncing as he looked in the direction of Heimdall’s burrow. He was far more…curious and concerned about Heimdall’s odd action than he was his father at the moment. He reached into the shirt he wore, digging through several little packets and pulled one out nodding as he handed it to the lion. Odin untied the tiny pouch and shook it, smiling as a large necklace that shouldn’t have fit into it fell into his open palm. “May I go now? I have pressing matters to attend to, Father.” Odin curled a brow and his lip as Loki’s feet kept shuffling the ground. The fox was gone as soon as the lion's head tipped slightly. The lion watched him running off and narrowed his eyes before he was looking back into his palm, smiling as he left to attend to his own affairs.

Loki rushed to the burrow and beat on the door screaming. “HEIMDALL! COME OUT HERE AND BRING ME SIGYN!”

“Take her if you can.”

Loki turned blinking and curled his lip as the hare lifted his head and frowned, folding his arms over his chest as he braced his feet against the ground. “Take her? She is my wife! All I have to do is ask anything of her and she will sway to it, so I know you are keeping her from me if she is not at home!”

“He keeps me from nothing.” Loki turned, blinking as Sigyn stood in the door that had opened behind him.

“Sigyn?” he asked as she curled her lips and exposed her teeth.

He stepped back in shock as she growled and stepped closer. “Am I so easily moved at your whims?” she snarled as he nearly tripped over his own feet, backing away from her. “Go back to your den. I will not return to a THIEF who steals from his own mother and thinks so little of the one who forgives all his sins!”

She turned slamming the door and Loki rushed forward, slamming into it and pounding against it with his fists again. “SIGYN! COME HOME NOW! YOU ARE MY WIFE!” The red fox fell back as she snarled against the door and looked to Heimdall as the hare raised a single brow and held the same stance. “WHY! WHAT HAVE YOU TOLD HER TO MAKE HER THIS WAY! SHE HAS NEVER DONE A SINGLE THING IN HER LIFE TO HURT SOMEONE! SHE HAS NEVER GONE AGAINST ME OR DONE SOMETHING TO MAKE-”

“But you have, Loki. All I did was tell her the truth. You are a thief, and you care for nothing but yourself. She will be staying here with me until Idun has made arrangements for her to move home again. She will not see you again, nor will I.”

“No.” Loki whimpered as the hare turned and walked away.

He returned to his father and Odin had almost glowed. “Please, Father, I will return it to mother and tell her I took it!” The lion handed it to the fox and watched him run off as he sat back folding his arms over his chest...

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He tried for days, weeks. months to talk to her and she simply acted as if he weren’t there. Heimdall stayed silent when the fox tried to speak to him and Loki sank into himself as he grabbed his brother, hissing as he pulled his paw from a shoulder colder than ice. The hare looked back at him frowning before turning the same cold shoulder and walking away. The silence dropped his chest in on itself. He left Heimdall alone, knowing he wouldn’t change his mind, but followed her everywhere. When she’d gone back to her mother’s home, Idun had done the same and not even turned an eye to him as he walked above the wall watching. Not even when he collapsed and sent petals falling over both of them, did they blink at his presence. The other Gods had watched as he started wandering around, walking on all fours. Loki stopped talking to anyone who asked what was going on as his spirit began to sink. He made his way back to Heimdall’s burrow and fell to all fours at his door, clawing at the wood as his head fell into the stones around the frame.

The buck’s ears shot up at the unfamiliar sound. He opened the door and found Loki sobbing against the wall as his claws scraped along the ground. The fox looked up and Heimdall nearly fell to his knees as his red furred cheeks stained with flames. “Please Brother. I will do anything, I can bear the silence no longer, from either of you. I need you and I need her back. I just want her back.”

Heimdall shook his head, sucking in a deep breath as he pulled the dampness from his own eyes and his brother from the ground. He’d seen his mother only the day before and asked how she’d gotten the necklace back. The wolf had simply said Loki returned it before she rushed off and was arguing with his father again, after telling him she had to do something she deemed necessary to keep the peace between them. Heimdall led Loki to a chair and sighed as the fox fell apart, he hadn’t seen him shed tears in centuries and cringed as each one smoldered against the floor it hit. “If you do not stop doing that you are going to set my burrow on fire.”

Loki looked up at him sucking his lip in as he whined and Heimdall took a seat tipping his head to one side. “WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO! I HAVE FOLLOWED HER FOR MONTHS! I HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING!”

Heimdall took a breath as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Have you tried asking for her to forgive you? Apologizing and finding out what she wants?” The red fox blinked and Heimdall cringed as several more tears sent flickers of flames against the wooden floors. “If you want her back, you are going to have to prove you mean it.”

Loki let his head hit the table and shuddered as he broke down. “She will not speak to me! She acts as if I am not even here. I am a ghost without her!”

Heimdall sat straighter as Loki looked at him and the hare looked off nodding. “You have shown her little respect, Loki. She knows the necklace was returned. Was it returned for her, because of her?” Loki nodded as he closed his eyes and heaved several times. The hare stood as he motioned to the door. “She was named when she returned from the mortal plane trying to win you as hers. Idun said she was a Sigyn of time. Give her time. Go home and wait. I will speak to her and see if she will see you.”

The fox stood up blinking as Heimdall kept a flat face. “I am sorry, Heimdall. There are things I care for more than any others. She is more precious than anything made of gold, as are you, Brother.”

The hare bit his cheek as Loki slumped out the door and when it closed, he rested his paws on the table closing his eyes as he sucked in a breath and pulled back the burning sensation taking over his eyes. He walked to Idun’s and through the gardens, finding Sigyn picking fruit from a tree she placed in a basket. The vixen turned as he called to her and set it down as his ears fell. “If you want him still, he waits for you.”

The vixen wrung her paws and started pacing back and forth in front of him as she chewed her lip. “I do not know if I can do this, Heimdall.”

The hare nodded as he looked back to the exit. “It is your choice. You know where he is.” She watched him leaving as she kept chewing her lip and looked out the entrance of the gardens towards what was once her den as she sighed……….

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Loki opened the door and stepped back, taking a shallow breath as Sigyn narrowed her eyes. The vixen tipped her head with angry eyes as she looked around, seeing the home they once shared left in tatters, dusty furniture, clothing sprawled everywhere and everything out of place. “You have not even enough respect to keep the home I built for us intact? To clean yourself before I arrive? This is a waste of my time.”

“Sigyn, please don’t leave again.. I just have not….known what to do without you here.”

The vixen curled her lip looking around and shook her head. “I will return in three days’ time. If you cannot even care for the home I built, or for yourself, you cannot care for me and I will not care for you.”

Loki stood there in shock as she turned and closed the door, letting it hit hard enough that he jolted before he looked around.

The fox blinked as he shook his head, and spent three days rebuilding the home they’d shared, gathering things she loved and creating a den that rivaled even the main hall in Asgard before he looked himself over frowning and took to cleaning himself.

When a knock came upon the door again, he opened it with halted breath and sighed as Heimdall looked around and let his jaw drop. He stepped in as Loki ran his paws over his head and down his face groaning. The hare looked back at him grinning as the fox rolled his eyes. “You… took my advice?”

“There is a first time for everything, Brother. What is it you want? I do not know when she returns and am still trying to get a few things done.”

Heimdall lifted both brows laughing in an elated grin as Loki sighed and let his shoulders drop. The fox’s eyes popped open as Heimdall stuck his nose in the air. “Is there something burning?”

Loki spat as he rushed to the hearth and pulled a pot away from the fire as Heimdall covered his mouth chuckling. “You cooked something?!”

“No, I burnt something.” Loki sighed as he sat it on the table. “I have been trying all day to do this and it is not….” He sighed as his head fell.

“When do you believe she will return?” Heimdall asked as Loki wrinkled his nose and shook his head, pulling the lid from the pot as he cringed. “You know she will not eat that, she has never eaten or drank anything except the fruit and wine from the gardens, you are the only one who eats that kind of …food.”

“I know that, but she cooks for me all the time and I thought maybe I could do…. something.” Loki sighed as he sat in the chair and cupped a paw over his eyes. “Now this place smells of charred…ugh!”

Heimdall laughed as he looked around. “I think I may be able to help you with that brother.” The fox lifted his head and brows as the hare smirked. “Flowers, they will cover the smell.” Loki blinked as Heimdall shrugged. “I suggest you move your tail. Sigyn is helping Idun make wine so she will not arrive until later, after the sun has set.”

Loki blinked as Heimdall motioned to the door. “A time ago you wished to beat me to death. Why do you help now?” The fox narrowed his eyes as the hare smirked. “Did she…show you her path?” Heimdall nodded as Loki swallowed. “What did you see?”

The hare raised a brow and shook his head as he narrowed his eyes. “Enough to know that you will not have her if you do not do something to change her mind.”

“Maybe you should…” Heimdall lifted a brow and grinned as Loki held out his paw.

The hare chuckled as the fox pulled it away shaking his head. “Did you just consider allowing me to see your path?” he asked as Loki let his head fall. The fox nodded slowly and Heimdall smiled. “It is a start, Brother. Believe me when I say I will beat you to death if you fail.” Loki laughed as he stepped out the door. Heimdall stepped out snickering behind him as the fox waited. “I said it was a start. It is not enough, Loki.” When the fox looked back at him and let his face fall Heimdall cocked his head to one side. “If you want her, you are going to have to break your own rules and actually follow some for a change.” Loki cringed as Heimdall laughed….. “Is she not worth it, Brother?”

The fox rolled his eyes and smirked as Heimdall motioned towards the fields of flowers. “I will lay down my weapons and wave a white flag in surrender if this does not work……”

**Notes; Some old stories say that the reason Loki became dark and did the things he did was because he ate the heart of a witch. The Valkyries are the angels of Asgard but him being their father is part of my story- or their mother, he did not shift forms when he birthed the eggs. He was a male. Regardless of how you see it, life can come from either sex and one is no more important than the other in the creation of life.**

**Sleipner came before Fenrir and his brother and sister. A man said he could build a wall of protection around Asgard in one season’s time as long as he could use his horse. Odin agreed to this and said he would give him Frigg as his bride if he could do it in one season because he didn’t believe it was possible. When he saw that the horse was doing most of the work and he was close to meeting the goal, he asked Loki to distract it and keep him from finishing it on time to save Frigg. Loki became a mare and lured the horse away, disappearing while pregnant with the foal and returning to Asgard, gifting the eight-legged foal to Odin.**

**Heimdall was also called the god of white, the shining god and was known to have gold teeth.**

**The name Archimedes means master planner. He is the eldest of the Valkyries and one of the sons of the lady of the cliffs and Loki- not Norse mythology. Weird, but in Norse mythology they are regarded as very ugly, but were sought after by mortals and extremely desirable even though they were considered highly unattractive. Almost like they had to ability to _entrance_ someone. In Norse mythology all the Valkyries were female. The Valkyries had many duties. Handmaidens to the gods, messengers, warriors, and they collected the souls to be brought back to Asgard.**

**The Valkyries are heavily tied to Fate because they collected souls. Half fox, half reptile/dinosaur, as their mother was a pterodactyl. This is why they do not fall into a subspecies.**

**This event with Sign explains why a Tod follows a vixen and why the tods builds the dens.**

“ **-** the moon has just as much sway over her even though they never meet again. It moves everything in her as it circles the world, never taking its eyes from her.” **The moon moves the tides and the waters of the world. It is most likely the reason the world is tipped to its side because of when they crashed into each other and the reason it spins at the rate it does, keeping the core of the planet warm and enabling life. The gravity of the earth holds the moon, but the moon controls the earth just as much. It also always appears to be ‘facing’ or ‘watching’ the world. (That’s just how we see it though, as it does revolve too)**


	9. Patterns Of Collision

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adult content people-

**Patterns of Collision**

Sigyn: Nickelback; Satellite

Loki: Starset; Everglow

Loki opened the door, flicking his ears back and stepping aside as Sigyn entered the Den. Her eyes wandered the place and she held her face flat as she fought not to let her jaw drop. The vixen turned and looked at him as his ears perked hopefully and narrowed her eyes. “Do you think gathering all these things and making this into a palace is enough to make me believe you will not do something so disrespectful again? If you treat your own mother so poorly and believe these physical trinkets are enough to move me, you are wrong.”

His ears fell again as his head dipped looking at her, before he shied his eyes and shook his head. The vixen sighed as she folded her arms over her chest. “What is it exactly you wanted to see me about? It is late, Loki.”

Loki set his ears and swallowed as he tried to keep his eyes with hers. “I want you to come home.”

“This is not my home! There is no home if there is no trust, Loki!” The red fox cringed as she glared at him. “How can I know you will not do something like this to me when you knew how much it would hurt her, your own mother!? Even returning it does not excuse the action!”

Loki swallowed as he shook his head. “I do not know any other way to fix this, Sigyn. What can I do to convince you I am sincere?”

The vixen tilted her head as he looked at her with curled brows. “You lie. You steal, you change your form and your face. I want two things from you Loki, they are all I will ever ask of you. If you cannot give them to me, I will leave this place and we will never be again.” The red fox nodded as his ears set on her. “Never lie to me or use words to make one thing seem like another when we speak. Never be anything but the fox you were born as. Never steal and take something that is not yours. If you take something you make sure you give it back in equal amounts, if you can give me this, I will give you what you have wanted since we married.”

Loki blinked and let his face fall as she turned her head with a bright tinge tinting her ears. The red fox smirked as he narrowed his eyes. “You would break the law my father has set down and…” he twirled his finger, grinning as the vixen ticked her eyes around the floor, unable to look at him as she nodded. Loki walked around, circling her as she nervously fumbled her fingers, and growled making her jump as he kept talking. “Why?”

Sigyn flicked her tail several times making his eyes shift to it as it twitched erratically, and smirked as she swallowed. “It is all I have to offer for what I ask of you. All I have to give you, is me.”

Loki lifted a brow as he stepped in front of her blinking. “You said you would never lie with another when we married. Would you? It would only be me?” He shook his head as she nodded. “Is that all you wish for?” he asked and tipped his ears.

“No.” she answered as his ears set again. The vixen almost wilted as she set her eyes on him, fighting to stay in a position she knew she had to keep if she was to make him hers. “I want you to listen. I will no longer be at your whims, Loki. I will no longer sway each time you ask it of me. I want your power.”

The red fox stepped away with his lip twitching as he gave her a suspicious look. “What for?” he asked as he started circling her again.

Sigyn dropped her head and brow as Loki watched her with burning eyes. “So we will be equal. So we never overpower or subdue each other.”

The red fox nodded as he kept walking around her and she lifted her head as he growled. “No one put you up to this? Perhaps another who wishes me weak? Someone who wants rid of me?”

The vixen snarled and snapped her jaws at him, making him step back in shock as she turned the tables and started moving around him. “I will not submit to you if you cannot do the same for me! I have done everything you have ever asked of me, other than breaking the laws set for us! I have stood by you as the children you had before me wreaked havoc on Asgard. I have stood with you each time your father has tried to get me to step to his side and force you to change. I will not force anything! I ASK IT OF YOU! If you believe I am here only to harm you and that it is not out of love, then I do not belong here at all!” She turned sharply as Loki stood with an open jaw as she reached for the door.

“STOP!” Sign turned with a raised brow as Loki closed his eyes and sighed. “I do not know how to do that, Sigyn. I do not know how to give my power to anyone. It isn’t that I wouldn’t do that for you, I just don’t know ho-” Sign growled as she grabbed the door handle and Loki dropped to his knees shaking his head. The vixen tilted her head as he grabbed her paw. “Please Sigyn, what would you have of me?”

The vixen turned and looked to the floor before she stepped in front of him, cradling his face in her paws and bending to her knees. “The same you would have of me, Loki. For never being anything other than the fox I married, I shall give you myself. I will be on my knees with you, but never before you, or have you on yours before me. For the power you give me, I will give you the breath in me. I will give back all you offer, and offer you the equal. If you can do the same?” she asked as he ticked his eyes between hers. “Will you give me all of you, if I give you all of me?”

“Yes.” Loki smirked as he stood and Sigyn flipped her ears back as he started circling her again. The vixen narrowed her eyes and snapped at him, making him laugh as she switched positions with him and started moving around him. Each of them continued to circle each other playfully as they both found voices to talk to each other, without words…..

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Odin sat up wiping his brow and shaking his head as the other Gods openly complained. The lion looked at his mate frowning and curled his lip as he stood. “Where is Hel? Did she leave the underworld again? Why is it so damn hot! It is bad enough she refused to return Baldur and if she left her place again, I will bury her even deeper under the tree of Life! It is as if all of Asgard is on fire! I am going to find her!” He stormed from the main hall with Freya shrugging as she looked around. When she found no sight of Heimdall her brow crinkled as she stood, making her way to the wall as Odin stormed to the underworld. She looked up, finding the hare humming with his ears pinned to his head and paws cupped over them as he kept his eyes locked shut.

“Heimdall?” she asked and he cracked his eyes open looking at her before he jumped down and straightened himself. The wolf tipped her head when she saw the look on his face and sighed. “Where is Loki? Hel may make it warm if she were above the tree, but he can…”

The hare looked back to her shaking his head before his ears shot up and Freya tipped a brow as he laughed. “Yes.” He heard Loki say and laughed again.

“She did it!”

Freya narrowed her eyes as Heimdall kept laughing and wiped her brow as the sweat dripped from her forehead. She looked at her paw as her eyes grew. “Sigyn and Loki are….OH FOR ODIN’S SAKE!” She jolted as Heimdall shot back through the gates and ran after him as he stepped into the main street of Asgard. All the Gods had come out and were fanning themselves as they tried to ebb the heat away. Archimedes stood with all the Valkyries, smirking as Freya shook her head. “Heimdall!?” she growled as he stood looking around…..

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Sigyn gasped as Loki grabbed the scruff of her neck in his mouth, growling as he thrust forward again. “How can such a vile act create such fire in one’s belly?” She huffed as he chuckled through a growl.

The fox ran his muzzle along her cheek as he curled his paws around her hips and snickered. “A vile act? And yet you pull at me as if you wish me to return each time I move away?”

The vixen growled as he curled around her tighter and Loki was pushed away as she bared her teeth, looking at her with wide eyes as she snarled and moved towards him. “I will not be held in your sway! I have given you that which you desired, now give me what you have agreed to!” Loki looked at her swallowing as she lifted and straddled over him on their bed. “All you have is your word, Loki. That is all you have with me. If you break this word you have given me, I shall never forgive anything you have ever done.”

Loki sucked in a deep breath and shook his head as she slipped over him again and grasped her hips as he curled his eyes groaning. “Sigyn… This is different! You are not the same as the other females I have lain with. They were giants to you in comparison….I fear, if you continue to move like this, I will be unable to move away as it grows more difficult with each moment we are together!”

The vixen dipped her head watching him huffing as she moved, and curled her lip as her fingers clutched into the fur on his chest. “Do not speak of others as you lie with me! I will erase them from your lips and you will stay in this moment! Keep your word Loki, it is all you have that matters to me!” The red fox puffed several breaths as she pushed herself again and nodded as their paws clasped together, his breath stolen as she locked her lips with his. He watched the brown eyes he’d fallen into shift when his paws lit up. Her fur began to lighten from the deep brown it had been to a bright red as her eyes began to glow. She pulled away with him fighting for air as she seemed to take all of it from his lungs and watched wide eyed as a darkness began to grow between their mouths, connecting them through their breath. Her eyes shifted from brown to red before the darkness between them was pulled into her lungs. He sucked in a breath, panting as she inhaled what she had pulled from him. The vixen turned her head and closed her eyes and Loki gasped as they opened on him again. He found himself lost in black orbs as the fire and magic she had taken started lighting up her fur. The loss of it caused him to shiver as her fur became fire. The vixen closed her eyes again as her back arched and screamed as the power of his fire and magic surged past what she could control, sending flames in all directions.

“LOKI! TAKE IT BACK! TAKE YOUR POWER BACK!” Loki shot up shaking his head as their paws stayed locked together. The fox cringed as he tried to breathe and blinked before grabbing the scruff of her neck and pulling her down as his jaw wrapped around her throat and cut off her breath as he pulled all his power back from her. They crashed into each other and Sigyn fell forward as the red fox whined and turned his head as he locked into her, both their jaws wrapped around each other’s shoulders from pain and pleasured shock when Loki fell back huffing with her in his arms. He looked at her in shock as he tried to sit up and they both yelped when he found himself locked within her. Sigyn caught her breath as Loki looked at her in awe and she giggled as he blinked.

“I cannot move from you.”

The vixen sighed as she curled around him and ran her scent through his fur. “Then I shall hold you in my embrace, so you no longer wander.”

The red fox god shook his head as her eyes opened and leaned back, making an odd face as she looked up at him. They were once again the brown they’d always been, and her fur had returned to its natural color as she leaned closer. She raised both brows as he pet her cheek and closed his eyes as her lips pressed to his again, curling around her tightly as he pulled her to his chest still panting. “I will never wonder again Sigyn, not from you….” He laid there with her, looking at the ceiling and charred things around him as his brow curled and his ears set as she started rumbling lightly. He shook off the odd thought of feeling different as he folded around her, deciding he would figure it out later as he returned the same sound she was making and tightened his hold on her as he pressed his scent into her fur….

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The hare's face dropped as a wall of flames started rushing towards the grounds of Asgard and his whiskers twitched as he shook his head. “She lost control of it!” He held his paws up and the gods shot back, gasping as the wall of ice he threw out sent the flames straight into the air, gawking as Heimdall started laughing. “ARCHIMEDES! I NEED THE AIR!” The largest of the Valkyries took to the air and was followed by the others as Heimdall directed their flight. “Go around the wall! Keep the flames away from the tree of life! Let it fortify the fires already guarding Asgard!”

Archimedes and the others swirled around the flames and split in two directions, dragging the fire with the wind along the wall as Heimdall moved the ice, creating a barrier between the wall and Asgard the flames couldn’t get past. The hare stopped and his face fell flat as the Valkyries started screaming at each other. They had split in two different directions at the beginning and were almost back to the gates threatening to crash together. Heimdall dropped his paws and ran as Freya shook her head. “Mother! Get them away from the gates!” The hare tipped his head as everything around him seemed to still and looked up seeing Grace holding her hourglass as she tipped it to the side. Everyone around him that had been rushing slowed to a crawl as the ice he threw again sped past the flames, before it all jerked back in sync again as Grace dropped her hourglass.

Freya blanched as she stepped back, seeing two walls of flames being directed by the Valkyries and held away by the ice, turning and telling all the others to move as far away as they could. She turned to see Heimdall open the gates and throw all the bridges open before the hare was screaming again. “ARCHIMEDES! TAKE THE FLAMES TO THE BRIDGES!”

Archimedes tipped his head, nodding before he was sending the message to all the others. The gods watched wide eyed as the Valkyries shot from the gates above the wall surrounding Asgard, followed by two massive walls of flames that collided, sending flames and sparks into the air. Heimdall threw up another wall of ice that fled over the top of the wall, sending the flames onto the bridges. He fell back laughing as they were all set on fire and lit up, showing all the colors of the rainbows within the darkness they had once been hidden in. “HAHAHA! BOOM! FIRE-WORKS!”

Odin rushed back from under the tree of life, growling after finding Hel laughing at him. He saw all the gods gawking as Heimdall laid at the open gates, rolling around on the ground laughing, and growled at the sight of the burning bridges and wall of ice and flames around Asgard. “LOKI!” He snarled as he balled his fists.

Freya raised both brows as Heimdall jumped from the ground and threw a sword in front of his father. The lion's face fell as the hare’s ears swiveled, and Odin narrowed his eyes. “He broke no law and has no power.” Odin blinked and looked around at the fires as Freya cupped a paw over her mouth.

“This is his fire! How does he have no power?!” Odin asked as he grit his teeth.

Heimdall stood taller raising his head as Freya stepped to Odin, smiling and biting her lip as the wall of heat that had fallen over Asgard was pulled back, leaving the bridges and walls burning high. “He gave Sigyn his power, as you gave me part of yours, Love.”

The lion's face fell as he looked around and saw all the gods with hanging maws. He nearly fell to his rear on the steps he stood in front of shaking his head. “I agreed never to cast her out, even though we know not of where she came. But I forbade it!”

Heimdall chuckled as he sheathed his sword. “No father, you forbade being with one not of your own kind. They are of the same kind.”

Odin growled lowly as Freya took a seat next to him, cupping his paw in hers. The wolf giggled as he looked at her scowling, and sighed. “The paths to the realms and worlds within them are no longer dark and cold. Can you not see it as a good thing?”

Odin shook his head before standing “She looks like him, like a fox, that does not mean we know of what she truly is.” He stood shaking his head and leaving them all looking around as the heat faded away.

Freya watched Heimdall heading back to the gates and tipped her head as the hare called to Archimedes. “Heimdall?”

He turned smiling as he shook his head. “I will return, Mother. But right now, I really need to be alone.”

The wolf steed closer cupping his paws as his ears swiveled and bit her lip with a gentle smile. “You love your brother enough to….

Her face fell as Archimedes took charge of the gates and bridges, watching Heimdall’s eyes drop before he left Asgard. Freya sighed as she looked at Archimedes. The large wined mammal turned his eyes as Freya asked without words. Her face fell as the gates to Asgard closed and she wondered how she’d missed the fact that her son was in love with his brother’s wife, or that he cared enough about both of them to keep it to himself as she let her eyes fall and cupped her paws in front of herself…

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Heimdall returned many years later and approached the gardens, tipping his head with a smile as Loki sat with his siblings, telling them the story of how he had tricked his brother into chasing another hare that ended up turning into a rabbit, and was griping about one of his tails being changed with the piece he thought his brother had lost. They all laughed as he held it up rolling his eyes. Heimdall snickered and they all turned smirking as Loki shot forward wrapping around him. “Don’t complain about getting a tail a little longer like that. You like it. I still feel sorry for that poor hare you changed into a rabbit.”

Loki pulled away laughing as he looked around his brothers back. “But there are rabbits now! I suppose we are even, considering my son bit your tail off.”

The hare shook his head smiling as their siblings laughed. Thor stood shaking his head and throwing his arms up as they all turned their attention to him. “I could beat that wolf! There is nothing that could beat my strength!” Loki looked back to Heimdall smirking as both their brows rose.

“Thor?” Loki asked as Heimdall flipped his ears up. “Would you care to prove that?”

The bull nodded as he looked around. “There is nothing in any realm I fear. Why not?”

“Then a journey we shall make of it! Are you up for it, Brother? Since you have only just returned?” Loki asked as he looked to Heimdall.

The hare shrugged as he looked around and curled his brow as Loki started walking away. “I thought you wished to journey?”

Loki looked back at him, throwing his arms out and nodded. “Yes, but I must ask Sigyn first. I would not take a journey without discussing it with my mate first.” The hare's face fell as all the gods around him snickered and turned their heads. “Come, Brother. If she says yes, she will help us make arrangements!” Heimdall’s whiskers twitched as he looked back to the others and saw them motioning for him to follow Loki.

The red fox led the way and Heimdall looked in wonder at the home he’d rebuilt. Holding his breath as Loki called to Sigyn. The vixen came out the door smiling and curled around the fox. “Did you talk to my mother today?” She asked.

Loki rumbled as she wrapped her arm around his neck nodding. “The gardens are still having problems, but she does not need help right now. I need to ask of a journey to take?” Sigyn raised a brow as Loki bit his lip. “It is to show Thor he is not invincible. I fear he may get himself killed if he does not stop thinking he can never be defeated. Heimdall will be helping.”

“He has returned?” She asked, and Loki tipped his head to the hare as she looked over his shoulder. The vixen nodded as he pressed her head to his. “If he goes, I know you will be safe.” She giggled as Loki curled around her and pulled her from the ground. The vixen kissed him and let her brow drop as she caught Heimdall’s face fall, his eyes shifting away from them. “Heimdall?” The hare turned to her smiling as she held out a paw. “Did you tell him, Loki?”

The fox smirked as he shook his head. “Tell me what?” Heimdall asked as he looked between them.

The vixen held her finger up and he stood with Loki as she made several odd sounds that had him tipping his head at the yips, yaps and barks. The red fox smirked at his brother as he shook his head. The hare nearly jumped as two small foxes rushed from the door and barreled into Loki’s legs.

They crawled all over him until he grabbed them both by the scruff and held them out in front of Heimdall as he chuckled. “This is Nari, this is Narfi, meet Uncle.” Loki snickered as they both hung there looking at the hare.

“You…had kits? And Father…” Heimdall shook his head as Sigyn curled around Loki. The red fox pulled them back to his chest and the hare chuckled as they kept trying to bite and chew on each other. “You named them… Death and Corpse?”

Loki shrugged as Sigyn took them from him. “She gave them life, I gave them names. After father. He is the God of Death. He was not happy, but he kept his word and we are all still here. Where have your ears been brother?”

Heimdall sighed as Sigyn stepped closer to them and chuckled as they stopped and looked at him, wiggling their noses at his scent as he handed the kits to her. “I suppose I have learned to tune a few things out.”

“To learn is to grow, Brother.” Heimdall shook his head as Loki grasped his shoulder. “She said yes, shall we ready?”

The hare looked off and nodded blankly as Sigyn took Nari and Narfi back inside, tipping his ears as she stopped at the door. “Loki go see Fenrir before you leave. I will have your things ready when you return.” The fox nodded and turned as she closed the door.

Heimdall followed Loki and stopped as the fox opened a door that he dipped under before they came out in a large enclosed area. The rattling of chains had Heimdall sighing as Fenrir stepped into the light growling. “Why do you continue to come if you refuse to set me free!” He asked as he bore his teeth at Loki.

The red fox sighed as he looked at the large wolf and shook his head. “Why do you insist on trying to fight with everyone? I am not responsible for the situation you are currently in and have tried to help repeatedly. I am going on a journey and wanted to let you know before I left. Sigyn will be coming to see you while I am gone and bring your food.”

The wolf growled as Heimdall looked him over, the strongest chains in existence had been wrapped around the wolf in several layers and a few had still snapped as he moved. “WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT!?”

Heimdall shook his head as he turned to the door. “Aren’t you the portrait of cute?” Fenrir snarled as the hare raised a brow. “I see a powerful God who has no control over his actions?”

The wolf growled as Heimdall stepped back towards the door. “Come closer and release the chains. I will show you how I control my actions! I will bite you again and this time I shall remove your face instead of your measly tail!”

“And you wonder why you are still here?” Heimdall asked as he stepped out the door with Loki following behind him.

The fox shrugged as he closed the door to the growling giant wolf behind it. “So Brother, tell me of your journey!”

Heimdall chuckled as he shook his head. “No, there is nothing to tell. But maybe after we are finished, I can show you around the world? The mammals there are beginning to talk to each other, and I think you would like it. They are still pretty….uncivilized by our standards. I think you should tell me of how you think we can help Thor? And that ring you wear on your middle finger?”

“They talk to each other now? The last I checked they were still struggling to compromise.” Loki asked as Heimdall shrugged. The fox smirked as he held up his paw and smiled as he lifted the single digit. “She likes the way I smell, and we leave our scents on each other, but I wanted something everyone could see, so I forged them from my fire and made one for each of us. To show everyone she is mine and I am hers.”

“You…want everyone to know you are-you belong to her?” Loki bounced his brow grinning as Heimdall shook his head smiling. “And there is nothing vulgar about that finger?” Loki chucked as he spun the ring and Heimdall shook his head.

“I had not intended that thought, it has more to do with the placement of the ring. She is the center of everything. So, they try to become civil there now Brother, and speak with each other?”

Heimdall nodded as Loki raised a curious brow. “Well enough that we could understand them, not so well with each other yet, but they are learning. I have to say it is fascinating watching them changing though.”

The red fox nodded as they stepped back to the road leading to his home and stopped as he looked up. “GRACE!” Heimdall tipped a brow as he looked up and caught the raven fly above them before it landed and took the shape of a vixen standing in front of them. She bowed slightly as they both shook their heads.

“You should choose one form and stay that, you know?” Loki smirked as he teased.

The vixen rolled her shoulders and scrunched her nose as Heimdall cupped a paw over his muzzle. “I can be whatever I choose and will shift at will!”

Loki smirked as he tipped his head back and folded his arms over his chest. “We need some help teaching Thor. Are you interested?”

She smiled as she looked between them. “It is a good thing there are few who have seen this form, or it would not be so easy to convince Thor I am nothing but an old vixen, would it? I think I know of one who will help.”

The fox rolled his eyes before they narrowed on her. “Get out of my head, Grace. My thoughts are my own!”

The vixen laughed as she crinkled her nose. “Oh, they are but you know I still have them. If you don’t behave, I will tell your mate of the things you wish for she does not know of.”

Loki stood straighter and scowled as Heimdall raised a brow. “You are no lady of any kind no matter if you are female now, knowing those thoughts!”

Heimdall laughed at Loki as she shrugged, and they watched her shift again before she flew away. The hare puckered his lips and Loki looked back at him smiling. “What exactly did you have in mind? You have changed, Brother. If you cannot lie or go against what your mate wishes, what do you plan on doing to help him?”

Loki smirked as he shook his head. “I have missed your company, Heimdall. It will be a fun journey. Just because I cannot lie does not mean I have to lay everything out to be easily seen. I plan on simply, being a fox…..”

**Notes; Explains why a vixen and Tod are equal, the reasoning behind a Tod taking the power from a vixen and a vixen giving it back through clamping their jaw around their mates neck.**

**Not Norse mythology but made sense- Loki and Sigyn lit the darkened paths of the Bi-frost bridge with Heimdall and the Valkyries directing the magical flames. Space is cold, they must pass (by the frost) to get to another world. The bi-frost bridges in Norse Mythology are burning rainbows. The fire lit and warmed the path and the magic made what was once a long walk into an instant transmission. Step on the bridge and you are there unless you have the magic to walk on it, something Heimdall can do because he controls the gates and bridges. Loki would also be able to walk on them as his and Sigyn’s magic was what lit the paths.**

**Fox and hare reminder- fox tails were changed chasing the hare when he picked up a piece of the tail he lost when the hare turned into a rabbit. It changed the fox’s tail and made it longer, adding another color to the tip. An old fable story mentioned in Think like a fox.**

**Heimdall and Loki are going on the trip that teaches Thor he is not invincible. This was told in the chapter while Nick was recovering from being ill. Thor gifted Heimdall with the horn and Loki with his horned helmet after learning from each of them, with the help of an old vixen who wrestled him, Grace- Old Age. Reminder- Thor wrestled with an old woman who looked like she was about to die. Heimdall raced thought. Huginn means thought. He is one of Odin’s ravens that watched the world and brought him back information from the world.**

**In Norse mythology it was Tyr who lost an arm to Fenrir, in this story it is Heimdall who lost part of his tail.**


	10. In The Depths Of Density

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What doesn't kill you doesn't always make you stronger-

**In the Depths of Density**

**Thousands of years later**

Lady Gaga; I’ll Never Love Again

Sigyn shook her head as she held the bowl, sitting it to the side as Loki gasped for breath. “Please Loki…tell them it was not you! LIE!”

The red fox looked back at her letting his head drop as he panted and shook his head. “I cannot, Sigyn. You know I cannot.”

The vixen’s lips wobbled as she cradled his head to her chest. She closed her eyes as he hissed when the venom from the serpents around him dripped onto his back again. The ground shook as he trembled, dust falling from the ceiling as she shielded his head again. “Loki, please, this world will be torn apart if you continue this! Odin will kill you to save it, to keep you from leaving everything _ragged and_ tearing this world apart with each time your pain _rocks_ this world. You must lie! Tell him it was not you who used the Mistle thorn to kill Balder! I can bear no more. He has cast out the Valkyries, Valhalla and the underworld are gone Loki! The gods war and you are at the heart of it! He created an armor to save those who will fall and asks others to go willingly because the trees are ailing. I have lost my sons and I cannot watch him kill you too!”

Loki shuttered as she pulled his eyes to her and shook his head as he pursed his lips into a grimace, teary eyes looking back at her before they closed. “This was done before you Sigyn, before you were mine. I cannot be who I once was. All I can be is what I am. I will die with honor, proud of who I have become, because of you.”

Sigyn fell in front of him sobbing and looked up shaking her head. “Then shift your form and leave these chains! Die with Honor but do not make me watch! I beg you, please, Loki!”

The red fox looked off and let his head drop as his arms curled around the chains binding him, and fought not to tremor again as venom dropped onto his back and head. He groaned as he grasped at them and grit his teeth as she looked at him with her chest bouncing again. “I told you I would never be anything to you but a fox. I cannot lie, Sigyn. Not anymore.”

Sigyn turned her head cupping a paw over her muzzle and shot from the ground grabbing his face as his eyes locked with her. “Then I shall leave. Shift your form when I am gone, leave this place so he does not make me watch your death as I did our sons!” The vixen looked at both serpents as they hissed and spat at her, and dipped to his ears. “Become one of them! They hold only a part of your power, only a part of what they once were! They know they cannot defeat you, not when you are their father and gave them their strength!”

Loki heaved several times and nodded as his eyes ticked around. “I will shift as many times as I must to put distance between us or when I need to hide from the other Gods. For the sake of saving you the vision.” He whispered. The vixen sobbed as she pressed her lips to his and rushed from the cave, leaving him fighting tears as he wrapped his arms around the chains and felt them tighten around his chest as it puffed out. He looked to both serpents as his eyes glowed red and they both shot away as he turned to a bright flame that shifted to a larger serpent before he slid out of the chains and the cave entrance. He shifted back to a fox and breathed in the cool air as he looked around, catching the sight of her smiling as she bounced through her tears. Both their heads whipped to the side as they heard the footsteps of others, and Odin’s voice roaring over them all. “Run Loki! Run, please!” He looked back to her cringing before he turned and ran the opposite way, leaving her cupping both paws over her muzzle as she slipped behind the entrance of the caves and out of sight. The vixen held her chest as she clamped her paw over her mouth, stifling her sounds as Odin screamed in fury.

Sigyn watched them leaving before she ran off through the outskirts of Asgard, shaking her head before she fell to her knees at the edge of the gardens. “Sssso much pain.” She snapped her head to the tree and growled as a serpent smiled at her.

“You, you of all creatures follow Odin’s orders in this! When Loki is your father!” she spat as she fought the stream of tears flowing through her cheeks.

The serpent smiled as it flicked its tongue at her. “Our father? When he watched as we were cut in half and lost to our true forms and strength? I am but the tail of what was once an angel, a Valkyrie in this world, now a serpent, whose other half is a bat in the world they were cast to. ”

Sigyn shook her head as she sat on her knees trying to catch her breath. “As if he had a choice in those who were changed!?”

“As if we have a choisse in our actions?” The serpent asked as it slid lower, and smiled as she turned her head. “Here, take it, it will ease the burden upon you at his loss.”

The vixen looked back and saw the serpents tail holding one of the fruits from the tree and shook her head. “What good will eating the fruit do now? It is the same as it has always been and I….”

“Do not wish to live without him?” the serpent asked, smiling as he flicked his tongue again. She shied her eyes as the serpent hissed. “You have taught him well, what harm could more knowledge bring to you?”

“Knowledge?” she asked as she watched the serpent coming closer to her, and stood so they were at closer levels.

“Knowledge, of all the things between the veils, of all life, of death, what was, what is and what will be.” It hissed as she looked to the fruit again. “The true path to all wisdom, that will lead our father to the greatest of all fates.”

Sigyn looked at the fruit and held her paw out as the serpent slipped lower and left it in her paw. “This will show me what is to be? What will happen to him?”

“Yessss,” he hissed as he slithered lower. “Among all other things. It will show you the truth of all life and unbreak the heart that lies within you. It will ease the pain, and make it as if it never were as you find yourself in the knowledge of all creation and existence. All the darkness and pain will be removed from you. It will lead you to all the answers you wish to have and all the knowledge you may need, for our father to survive and become the God he was meant to be.”

Sigyn took it and looked it over as the serpent lifted its head waiting. She bit into it and closed her eyes as she swallowed, shooting her eyes back to the serpent as pain surged through her body. It hissed in laughter as she fell to her knees. “What have you done to me?” she asked feebly as the serpent coiled around the tree laughing.

“I have given you the gift of all knowledge, but no one can see between the veils of life and death to all knowledge, unless they take the journey themselves! You ate of the venom we carry. He will watch you dying and we shall have our revenge for him standing by and saying nothing while we were cut from each other!”

It slid away laughing as Sigyn pulled all her strength into standing. “He will not watch my death, not when he broke a vow to keep me from watching his. I will hasten this poison through my blood.” She took off running and sped through all of Asgard until the fire was racing through her veins turned to a chill as she stopped at the door of the only other God she knew they could both trust.

Heimdall opened it as she screamed, the vixen falling forward as she fell apart. “Sigyn?”

“Heimdall. Your father chases Loki. He found out that he was the reason Balder was not returned from Hel, that he tricked another to kill him with the Mistle thorn!”

“That is why Asgard shakes? I thought it was Fenrir again. I should not have learned to tune things out with my ears, for the ….” Heimdall stopped as she leaned forward with heavy eyes. “Sigyn?” He bent to her as she let her arms fold under her head and pulled her knees into her chest.

“I am so cold.” The hare cringed as she shivered and pulled her into his arms as she shook her head. “Death is at my feet Heimdall, I do not wish for him to see it. I can bear no more, my heart can take no more. I could not watch them kill him. Not after I watched our sons fighting, not after Odin turned Nari and Narfi to Wolves and Narfi killed his brother.” Heimdall cringed as his eyes swelled over.

“Why did Father do that?”

The vixen half giggled as she shuttered. “He threw him to the Earth to be alone. The only one of his kind. The first wolf in the world. They are just learning to get along there Heimdall, they can barely speak to each other and he is alone. I have lost my children, I will soon lose my mate. The stars dim, and the world grows dark.”

Heimdall lifted her from the ground shaking his head. “I will show you it is not, I will make sure Narfi is not alone.” He walked up the side of the hill and stood in the sun, letting it hit his fur as the sun crested the ridge. The vixen squinted as his fur glowed white, the reflection creating a warmth she sighed under as he looked at her with soft eyes.

“Help him, Heimdall. Please, for whatever time he has left, keep him safe for me?”

“I promise I will try. I will ask my mother to create others like Narfi, so he is not alone. I will watch over Loki as I always have.” Heimdall nodded as his lip quivered and watched as she let out a breath and closed her eyes.

“So warm here. You are beautiful, Heimdall.”

The hare chuckled as he shook his head. “I reflect what I see.”

The vixen opened her eyes as she blinked, catching the tears streaming down his face as he kept his eyes on her. “I have known for many years, Heimdall. I saw it after I took part of his blackened soul from him. I saw it each time you looked at me and each time you turned away from us as we were all together.” The hare’s bottom lip curled under as she smiled and hiccupped several times. “Let me give you something…the only thing I have to offer in the last of my moments, for loving someone so much that you led them to another. For loving a brother you envied for it and making a promise I know you will not break. Thank you, for loving me, even when I could return it.” Heimdall swallowed as her lips pressed to his cheek and half sobbed as she kissed him, until she pulled away looking up at him with a grateful smile. “I loved you too.” The hare heaved several times as her eyes closed and fell to his knees as she left him in a peaceful face. He looked up biting back tears as Grace stood in front of him.

“You may be Grace, but she will never grow old with you. You are still Father Time no matter what name you use or the shape you choose to hold. I know you have the power. Take her, Grace. Do not let her fall to the worms and leave this as the last vision anyone will see of her! It was her last wish that Loki not see her like this.”

The vixen lifted her head and bowed slightly as he locked eyes with her. “One with such a warm heart has an honorable request. From the matter all life came from, ashes shall the bodies return to dust.” The hare cringed and bounced as the weight in his arms faded into dust, and blew away with the wind as Grace swirled around him and was gone with the gust into the shadows again……

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Loki ran until his feet ached, looking back over his shoulder as each roar became more clear. He came to a stream and shifted, jumping into the water before ducking under a large lot of greenery growing above the ledge. The fish he’d become stayed still as they passed him, and he swam out into the open water as a wave of pain slammed his chest. His heart skipped as his eyes locked into the sun above him. The water glistened and rays became as sharp as knives as he felt part of his heart - stop. His heart paused as another it was attached to stilled. He fell out of the form rushing to the top of the water, screaming, just before he was grabbed by the scruff and thrown from the water to the open land.

Heimdall’s ears shot up as he heard the fox and he bound his legs, gritting his teeth as he braced one paw against the ground. “Loki…. A promise I will keep.” He rushed forward, the sun hitting his fur making him shine as he moved so fast many heads turned as a beam of light seemed to shoot through Asgard. He stopped raising a sword as Odin’s blade began to fall and stood glaring at his father as they connected. Odin blinked as Heimdall lowered his head and barely ticked his ears back to the fox who seemed to have lost his mind.

“YOU DARE TO INTRUDE ON MY JUSTICE!”

Heimdall scowled as he threw off his father’s sword. “LOOK AT HIM! YOU DESIRE SO MUCH THAT WE ALL DIE WITH HONOR AND GLORY AND YET YOU WOULD TAKE A LIFE THAT HAS NONE! WHAT HONOR WILL YOU DIE WITH IF YOU TAKE THIS ACTION?!” The lion curled his lip as Heimdall shook his head and lowered his voice. “If you seek vengeance Father, know the reason he is without the mind he once had is because he has lost his heart. Would it not be to your satisfaction to let him live in misery than to die without understanding? When right now, death is all he wants for?” Odin looked back watching Loki clutching his head as he rambled, no words left him that made sense and the lion lifted his head and looked around at his other children who were all watching the fox, shaking their heads and mumbling under their breath. “Let me take him back. Please, Father. Do not kill him like this, not when it is what he wants. Not when I can still see no path that may change his mind.”

Odin huffed as he looked at the red fox rolling around on the ground and nodded. “I let him live only for the love you hold for him. I let him live only because I see the misery he writhes in and he now feels what he has caused to so many others.” The lion turned growling and stomped away, followed by several others who ticked their eyes back several times as Heimdall pulled Loki from the ground.

“She is gone! She is gone!” Loki spat in garbled words as Heimdall cringed and wrapped the fox’s arm over his shoulder.

“I know, Brother.” He shot away from the hare shaking his head and rambling as Heimdall stiffened his lip.

“I need to see her! I must know what happened!”

Heimdall closed his eyes as Loki looked around frantically, and pulled the fox along with him as he shook his head. “Some things are better left unknown, Loki. Your heart and mind are in no condition to search or seek anything that may leave a darker scar than it has already left you with. Come, I will make sure you are cared for, for a time.”

“I must find her, Heimdall! _I cannot live without her! I cannot die not knowing what happened to her!_ How do I breathe! How do I love…I have no heart without her!” The hare choked on his words as Loki seemed to stumble along with him, still looking around with wild eyes and no focus as he was led to his brother's burrow. Heimdall left him sitting in a chair, lost as he looked into the fire that burned in his hearth. He stepped away holding his breath as Loki lost his vision in the flames of his own tears. “I will never love again.”

The fox kept muttering as Heimdall dropped his head. “Nor do I, Brother………….” 

Heimdall left Loki with Freya after they’d moved him to his home, and looked out over the bridges that still burned with the fox fires as she cupped his shoulder.

“You do not have to be alone either.” The hare looked back at her letting his eyes gloss over before she smiled and nodded. “If you must go, I will watch him, Heimdall.”

The hare nodded as he sighed. “Do you still have your magic feather, Mother?” The wolf smiled as she nodded. “If you cannot open the bridges with Archimedes gone, then you can fly to me as a falcon if I am needed. I will still be listening but I need...”

“To be still. I know. I have already set into motion the wolves on the Earth. By the time you get there they will have grown and will have evolved into others Heimdall. They will evolve faster and stronger than the others to catch up. I know you will not go there first.” She answered and he looked up at her with teary eyes before he slipped past her onto the bridges and walked to the coldest world in the realms…..

**Notes; Sigyn; “Loki, please, this world will be torn apart if you continue this! Odin will kill you to save it, to keep you from leaving everything _ragged_ and tearing this world apart with each time your pain _rocks_ this world.” = Ragnarök- The beginning of the _end_ in Norse mythology-it has begun.**

**Reminder- Just before Ragnarök began Loki was chained for the death of Baldur. Loki tricked another god into shooting him with a mistlethorn, the only thing Frigg had not secured a promise from for his protection because she believed it too small to cause harm to him. Loki was jealous and refused to help bring Baldur back by becoming the witch Pokk and denying shedding a tear to return him to Asgard that kept him in hell. Sigyn held a bowl over him, catching the venom to prevent his pain, even after the death of their sons. No one knows how he escaped.**

**This is why a rabbit never breaks a promise- Why foxes must see death to accept it. They cannot live without their mate, they cannot die without seeing it for themselves.**

**Reminder-Freya had a magical feather that could make anyone who held it become a falcon/eagle. Loki used it to save Idun after he was the cause for her being kidnapped by Skadi. He turned to a falcon with the feather and changed her into a fig/nut to bring her back to Asgard. Idun and Skadi’s daughter were furious as were the other gods who started aging due to her absence, as Idun cared for the garden and made the wine that kept them immortal, and Skadi’s father was killed chasing Loki.**

**Norse mythology: Loki’s son who lived was thrown to the world as a wolf named Vali. This story- he was the first wolf/canine on the earth and where foxes and other canines evolved from.**


	11. My Brother's Keeper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some Bonds can't be broken-

**My Brother’s Keeper**

Heimdall: Eagles; Learn to Be still

Heimdall walked to the farthest world he could find, where the wind howled around the frozen landscape and drowned out more sound than he’d ever been able to escape. The hare walked through the ice and snow for thousands of years, trying to escape the thoughts of his own mind. He dug a burrow he buried himself in, before his eyes closed and he fell into a sleep that rivaled even the best of dreams as his mind stilled. When he woke he found himself covered in a thick ice that he had to break free from before he sat looking around, and smirked at the flapping he heard as he turned his head. The raven sitting above him tipped its head as he narrowed his eyes. “You cannot stay here forever, Heimdall. You are not a wrinkle in time though your clothing would suggest otherwise and hiding in this corner of enclosed land is not getting you anywhere.”

He chuckled looking at his tattered clothes and shook his head. “You wish to rename me Rip van winkle?”

The bird rolled its eyes and he opened a burning bridge he stumbled onto, closing his eyes while the heat from the fire warmed his fur as he started walking to the Earth. The raven flew past and he shook his head setting his ears as he arrived. They tipped as he looked around at the colors covering a planet he’d not set foot on since Sigyn had found a wild lion. The hare looked back over his path after he shed several tears and blinked as each one hit the ground, smiling as a little purple flower sprang up each time one sank into the Earth. The mammals had evolved to a point that made him lighthearted as he watched the world. But he saw that they were lost in their own voices, not communication with each other as they should. There was no structure in the world.

The hare walked until he found an old lion and lioness who stopped and looked him over. Heimdall looked at himself seeing his clothes had fallen apart over time and through the weather of another world. The old female leaned into her mate whispering and his ears perked as the lion laughed. “You are in dire need of clothing, rabbit.” He chirped as he motioned to their home. Heimdall sighed and nodded as he followed them to their home. It was rather large and the hare shook his head as the lioness went about gathering materials to make him something to wear. The little community around them seemed to be coming and going as they worked, and though they seemed to have more than the others they still shared it with him and those who asked. He sat at the table after she’d given him a shirt, pants and a robe that covered him from head to toe.

“I am a hare by the way.” They looked at each other and chuckled as she sat a bowl in front of him. The old lioness shrugged as she picked up a spoon and motioned to the food she’d sat in front of the hare. Heimdall cringed as he looked it over. “Begging your pardon, for the hospitality I cannot repay, but I cannot eat foods like this.”

The lioness cupped a paw over her mouth and shook her head as she folded in on herself. “Oh, I am so sorry. We are not used to prey mammals being in our home as company.”

The hare tipped his ears and smiled as he looked at both of them. “Yet you still offer me your food and clothe me?”

The lions both looked at each other and chuckled again as they shrugged. “We were never blessed with children, many of the young ones come to see us if they need help.”

The hare nodded as he watched them moving uncomfortably around the food they’d sat on the table. “Please, eat. It is your home and I would not wish to make you uncomfortable.”

They both looked at each other before they ate, enjoying the new company before Heimdall excused himself and told them he needed to leave. The lioness stood from her seat and looked outside, curling her lip as her mate shook his head. “You should stay this night friend. A storm comes that no one would want to be caught in. Here in this place are still those in the world who hunt for your kind. It is not safe at night.”

Heimdall blinked as he ticked his eyes between them. “You do not hunt for food?” he asked as they both looked at each other and shook their heads.

“We are trying to stop that among all of us here. We have a good supply of fish and amphibians we use to keep our strength. It is much healthier and the idea of eating one who holds thought and understanding is quite…unpleasant.”

Heimdall nodded as he removed the robe she’d put together for him. “I shall stay for one night in your graces if it is not a burden.”

The lion laughed as he stood from the table and motioned to the large bed. “If you do not mind sharing a bed, we will keep you warm this night.”

The hare nodded as they pulled the blankets away and slept between them as they kept him warm through the night. When he left the next morning the lioness gave him a large parcel, telling him to watch himself in the darkness and that the bread and fish could be traded for coins that could buy him a proper meal. Heimdall let his ears rise as they stood at their primitive door and nodded. “You shall be the royalty of this world. Your son will be the king who leads the others and creates the structure this world will follow.”

Both lions laughed as they shook their heads. “Oh my sweet lad. We are much too old to have children.”

The hare tipped his head to one side with a smirk and scrunched his nose. “In nine months’ time, you will have a child, and he will be the most beautiful of all the animals in the world. The first king of all the lands here.” He left them shaking their heads as he traveled again.

Many nights later he sat on a riverbank looking over the water as he was approached by a wolf who’s nose wiggled at the parcel he was carrying. He looked tired and well worked as the hare lifted his ears. “You, rabbit, what do you carry?”

Heimdall lifted the package and lowered his brow. “Hare. I am a hare. Fish and bread from the lions who cared for me a few nights ago.”

“A lion cared for a rabbit? What does a prey mammal need with such things? What is your name?” the wolf asked as Heimdall shook his head.

“I am a Hare. There is a difference. You may call me, Hare. They gave me the clothes on my back and the food to trade for coins.”

“I am hungry from the days I have worked in the mines here. You carry enough to feed a family for days. Feed me and I shall give you better than coins.”

The hare turned his head to the water and nodded as he sighed. “Shelter me for one night and choose the payment you wish to give me, then I will trade my food with you.”

The wolf smiled as he raised an arm, motioning for the hare to follow him, they traveled to a den the wolf peeked into as he howled. Heimdall jolted as several pups shot from the opening and laughed as several of them puffed up growling, before the wolf who’d led him there snarled and sent them all yelping back inside. “Forgive them, they are still young, and we still learn how to get along with other species that are not predators.”

Heimdall nodded as he followed him in and stepped to a she wolf who’d gathered the young ones around her as her mate held the parcel he’d been carrying. He unwrapped the fish and bread and the hare watched as all the pups excitedly jumped up and down, while he divided it between them and set what was left on a shelf as they all sat to eat together. The wolf sat, sighing as he watched them eating, taking little for himself as Heimdall looked at him with a concerned brow. “I mine for the ores that make the jewels and gold others have decided are valuable. But it takes time to polish the stones, time to melt the metals and create the things that sell. Another a few days from here will buy them, but I have no time to take them with my family to feed until the next moon arrives. You are welcome to sleep here as long as you like, and I will give you enough to trade him for coins for feeding my family.”

Heimdall agreed and was wrapped in a ball of wolves as they all piled together and slept in the warmth of their fur for one night.

He stood with them at the entrance of their den the next morning, chuckling as the pups all crowded around him asking about his clothes and the difference between a hare and a rabbit. Their mother shooed them back inside as their father shook his paw and handed him a small bag filled with raw stones and a rock that glittered in the sun. “For helping me this night and bargaining so well, your kind shall be the diplomats of this world, the ones who help the kings and queens find peace among all the others. Your children will be the guardians of law.” The wolf scoffed as he turned back to his den and Heimdall left again, traveling several days and looking to the heavens, tired of the rain that had soaked his clothing before he stumbled onto the home of an older pair of rabbits.

He asked the doe if her mate was home and watched as she fetched him from a field. He carried a large basket on his back and heaved it to the ground as Heimdall tipped a brow. “I seek to spend one evening out of the weather. I can pay you with the stones I received from the wolves, and the robe I wear from the lions.” Both rabbits looked at each other blinking as Heimdall removed the items and shook their heads.

“We desire no such things, good Sir. But we would let you stay if you would help us in the fields for one day. We will fill your belly and keep you warm while you are with us. We have no kits to help us tend our lands and crops are heavy this harvest. It is difficult to tend in the rainy season.”

Heimdall agreed and was led to the fields, both rabbits watched in awe as he pulled each of their crops from the land and filled their wagons with the things they would sell. When they sat down to eat, the doe had fixed a large meal and he bit his lip looking over the food as she frowned and looked to the floor. “Forgive me, Lady. I have never eaten such things or even seen them before in the land I grew in. I mean no insult.” Heimdall said as his ears fell, with him blushing slightly when she laughed as her mate chuckled.

“Have you lived under a rock?” The buck asked as Heimdall shrugged and nodded. But after hibernating for so long and leaving Asgard in a rush, he couldn’t deny he was hungry having used the few stores of wine he’d taken for the journey. The hare hesitantly took up a spoon as he looked at the stew she’d made and fought not to cringe as he fumbled with the utensil until it landed in his mouth. Both rabbits covered their mouths and choked on their laughter as his ears set rigid and eyes popped open. “You truly have lived under a rock!” The buck snickered as Heimdall swallowed and let his jaw fall as he looked back at the dish in front of him.

“For the love of all Gods what is this!” Heimdall asked as the rabbits folded over laughing.

The doe gathered her breath and nodded. “Vegetables from our lands. The ones you picked this day and the one you seem to like so much is called a carrot. Since you have helped us so much with our fields this day, we will send a large parcel of any of them you wish to have with you when you leave for your journey. You should be careful about eating too many of them. I know you are a hare, but too many of them are not good for rabbits. They can make us sick and are a bit of a delicacy for or kind, very popular though.” Heimdall nodded as he dug into the stew and the rabbits snickered as he ate several bowls, before they looked around their meager dwelling and cringed. “Forgive us good Sir, but we have no bed. We sleep under this part of our home in a burrow filled with straw to stay warm, but you are more than welcome to join us.”

Heimdall chuckled as he laid in the straw, both rabbits acting a bit skittish as he pulled them closer. “It is warm enough if we stay together. It is not a good thing to sleep so far apart or be alone.” They curled around each other staying warm through the night and Heimdall stood with them in the early morning looking over the cart they had filled to send him off with.

The doe handed him a large dish and he cocked his head as she smiled. “It is called a pot pe and has man of the things you like in it. You can eat it cold or rewarm it over a fire, so long as you do not keep it more than a day or two because it will spoil.” The hare shook his head as they refused the rocks and gems he’d been given by the wolves again. “We have no use for such things, good Sir. We are happiest working with the dirt and growing the things we need to get by. It would have taken us days to pull these crops alone without you and with no family to help, we are grateful for it.”

Heimdall lifted the robe over his shoulders as he stuffed the gems and gold back into his pockets as he sat the pie on the cart. “For this I will give you the gift of longevity and large families. Your kind will be the workers of this world and always grow things, so long as you never break a promise you make. You will live longer than any other species and be able to have children through the entirety of your lives. In nine months’ time you will have a large litter of the children you wish for, to help you with your lands.” Both rabbits looked at him dead faced as he chuckled and pulled the small cart they’d given him away from their home, smiling.

The hare pulled his cart for many more days until his ears flicked at the rustling, and shook his head as he was approached by many mammals flanking around him as he set it down and drew his sword. He narrowed his eyes as a single figure appeared, and let them grow as a fox stood before him. “Wolves… they will have evolved by the time I …. The children of Loki and Sigyn, foxes!” he mumbled as he looked over the fox and let his ears tip back and forth as he heard others gathering around him.

“We are not children of anyone!” the fox growled as the hare lifted a brow. Heimdall lowered his head, frowning as his eyes narrowed. He was rushed by several foxes and they were all thrown away yelping as he fought them back and pulled his sword as he stood tall, making sure no swing landed a cut. He pointed the blade at the one who seemed to be leading them and growled as it pressed to the fox’s throat. The tod dipped his head back and held his paws up as he whimpered.

“You will be their children by the time I get done with you.” He spat as they looked up at him cringing.

The tod he held a blade to swallowed as Heimdall glared. “Forgive us, Sir! We meant no true harm, we are simply living the only way we know of and have families to feed!”

“Your true father is a God and you will not dishonor what his mate made of him. You. Will. Learn. I will teach. You will be the chaos in this world, the chaos that creates all order.”

The tod nodded as Heimdall sheathed his sword. “Pick up the cart if you wish to eat and feed your families, and lead me to the others of your kind.”

Heimdall traveled the world teaching and gathering the foxes, and stopped in a large meadow as he caught sight of a black bird circling overhead. He shook his head grinning as he approached the tree it landed in, and grabbed a branch as it looked down at him. “You know, you have changed your name, your sex, species, why do you keep switching between two forms?” he asked as the raven opened its wings and swooped in front of him before becoming a dark swirl that shifted to a smirking vixen.

Grace tipped her head back raising a brow as she looked him over. “I am what I choose to be, Heimdall. Even when we change, we cannot just shirk off what we have been, what made us what, and who we are. I am darkness and part of my past will always be with me. I will no longer use the form of a raven when it is no longer needed.” The hare rolled his eyes laughing as she looked him over. “You have been busy and away long enough that you have not paid attention.”

His ears set as she raised her head, sighing. “Grace, I have been trying to…”

The vixen smiled as she nodded. “I know what you have been doing.” She tapped her head making him look away grinning as he shook his.

“Yes Grace, I know, you hold all thought, all memory.” He sighed as he looked back to her.

“I know what you have been teaching everyone here, Heimdall. But there is another who has needed you more.”

His ears perked to their highest point and the hare's face dropped as he honed in on a screaming voice. _Mother?_ “Loki…A promise I must keep…..” he whispered before he ran back to the open field and threw a bridge open, rushing back to Asgard.

He found Freya sobbing as his brothers and sisters all gathered around the bed the fox was lying in. Heimdall shook his head as he walked closer, seeing the fox laid out and withered, his muscles became lean and close to his body and his limbs looked like they belonged on a mortal wracked with age. “Where have you been?!” she asked as she shook her head. The hare stepped closer furrowing his brow as she waved an arm at him shaking. “He will not eat!” Heimdall looked around Loki’s home and cringed seeing the pots that still held burnt food and the wine that had been brought trying to get him to eat, and ground his teeth as he leaned forward and picked him up from the bed. He walked past the other gods, grinding his teeth as he stepped to the bridge and turned scowling as Freya grabbed his arm. He looked at her as she ticked her eyes between him and Loki. “He needs to be away from here, Mother. He needs to be somewhere he is not reminded constantly of what he has lost and where there is food he will eat.” He motioned back to the bridge as she let go and stood sniffling.

“Heimdall?” she asked as the hare looked around at the other gods and sneered. Odin folded his arms over his chest as Loki laid limp in his arms. The wolf laid the necklace she loved in his paw as Heimdall nodded. “Use it if it will help you there. It is not as important as my sons. Bring him back to health.”

“He will live.” Heimdall growled before he stepped to the bridge, and vanished with the fading rainbow. He set foot on the world again and sought out a wolf he’d once met in the darkness of a mine. The wolf turned with wide eyes and blinked as the hare dropped his head to the fox. “You helped me once before. I am in need of it again.”

The wolf frowned as he looked the hare over and ticked his eyes to the fox as he shook his head. Heimdall held up the Brisingamen and the wolf sighed as the fox in his arms head fell to the side, before he nodded. They returned to his home and his mate took to tending to the fox as Heimdall stepped back out of their den with the wolf. “He is in need of food. Will he be safe here?”

The wolf tipped a brow and nodded as he looked around. “When you came last, we were having a bad time. We have plenty of food now. Do you mean to leave him and not return?”

Heimdall shook his head. “No, there is a family of rabbits I must speak with. He is not like wolves. He eats more vegetables than meat.”

The wolf looked back to the den and shook his head. “As bad a shape as he is in, he will need meat more than anything else right now, to get his strength back. We will watch him until you return, my mate will keep him well fed until you gather the other things he needs.”

Heimdall snapped the necklace in half handing one section to the wolf as he tipped his head. “Is it enough for payment? Enough to replenish the stores he may need?”

The wolf nodded as he looked it over. “Enough for at least a year, Hare. We will have no problems caring for either of you with this, but…” Heimdall tipped a brow as the wolf bit his cheek. “Their kind are not very friendly and keep away from everyone. We do the same with them. There is a small town not far from here that recently came up…I can’t think of the name of it, but it is the first place more than a few have gathered to live other than with direct family members. They hide from the world.”

Heimdall lifted his ears as the wolf looked back at him. “The name of the Town is Gosforth. It is the first town of foxes. I would hide too if everyone looked on my kind the way they are seen. They are shy around others because they must be. They have had little choice with how they have lived and are trying to learn, but cannot trust others or each other easily when they are seen the way they are even among their own.”

The wolf narrowed his eyes as he tipped his head. “How do you know of them, of the town, when they are so… shifty with the world? They never stay in one place for very long, are horrid with keeping family together and are said to be thieves. They are not like any others or either of our kind.”

Heimdall scowled as he shook his head. “They named the town because of the things they learned. Because it was a God, a fox, who gave them their Worth and a fox who brought them forth. Gosforth. They are of two Gods Worth. Her name was Sigyn, his name is Loki. She was the mate to Loki and the reason he became a true fox. When I return, I will tell you of the kind they are, and of the kind you both came from. Your kinds are one and the same. I know of them because I have been with them for many years and none of what is believed is true. I know of the town, because I built the town.” The wolf blinked as the hare started rushing away.

“Hare!” Heimdall turned, looking back curiously. “What do we call the fox if he wakes? Has he a name?”

Heimdall looked to the ground and his eyes shot back to the wolf shining. “He is only called Fox, as you only call yourself wolf to those who do not know you!”

The wolf sighed as Heimdall rushed off and looked to his den shaking his head. “Odd these two together. The fox and the hare.” He blinked as he twisted his lip, recalling childhood stories he’d once heard and shook his head before he went back into his home…..

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Heimdall made his way back to the rabbits and knocked on the door as he flipped his ears around. The doe answered and smiled wide as he caught the sight of several kits crawling around her feet. The hare chuckled as they all caught sight of him and fled back into the home. “Please come in, Hare! You must meet them!”

Heimdall entered the home grinning as the buck sat close to the hearth and tipped his head before he shot from the chair, beaming and sticking his paw out. “We have more than a dozen pairs of little feet! A miracle brought by a Hare!” he bellowed as he wrapped his paw around Heimdall’s, laughing and pointing to a corner where they’d all huddled together. He took a seat motioning for the hare to join him as the doe set a pot on the fire before she sat on the floor holding her arms open. Several little bunnies cautiously moved to her, ticking their eyes between their mother and Heimdall as they moved to her lap. Heimdall cupped a paw over his mouth grinning as they bounced to her slowly on all fours, not even old enough to be walking upright yet. He looked down with raised brows as he felt something tug on his pant leg and smiled as a young bunny curled around his leg. The buck sitting next to him chuckled as the little buck on the floor tilted his head. “This is Uncle Hare!” Heimdall cringed and the buck’s face fell as the hare turned his head. “I meant no offence. Perhaps cousin would be better?” he asked and Heimdall nodded as the little buck grabbed his pant leg pulling himself to his toes. “This is Cousin then!”

Heimdall raised both ears and gently put his paws out as the little bunny reached for his fingers. “I am Cousin Hare. What is this one’s name?”

The doe on the floor laughed and the others hopped to her when Heimdall picked him up making him giggle. “His name is Peter.”

“Peter rabbit.” Heimdall nodded as the little buck scrunched his nose. He chuckled as the little male jumped down and hopped back to his mother, stirring up all the others as their father laughed.

“What brings you back this way, Hare? It has been several years since we last saw you.”

Heimdall nodded as he ticked his eyes around the floor. The rabbits looked at each other frowning as his ears dropped. “If we can help you, please tell us?” The buck asked as Heimdall sighed.

“I am in need of help again. I can pay you of course, but I have someone very important to me who is ill and needs the best of foods to recover. He is very weak and…”

“Food? That is all you ask of us after giving us such a gift?” the buck asked as he stood, shaking his head. “Then you shall have all you need! I ask only that you help again with the fields. It is a little more difficult now that she has her paws full all the time.”

Heimdall laughed as the doe curled around their kits giggling. “I will do better than just helping with the fields. I will tell you stories and teach you something that will help you with your crops and caring for your family for helping me again.”

Both rabbits perked their ears and shook their heads looking at him. Heimdall smirked as he looked at the little bunnies and nodded. “I will tell you the stories of the gods, and how to make everything you have come back to you.”

The buck shook his head and curled his lip as his mate sat straighter. “Come back to us?” she asked as Heimdall nodded.

“I will teach you how to add what you make, how to keep track of what you need to grow your crops and all you sell. So that you have more than just the food you grow for others to trade. I will teach you mathematics……”

**Notes; Rip Van Winkle- the name rip mean torn. Van means Of. Winkle is corner or secluded piece of land. When he woke the world had changed. Heimdall has a unique connection with Earth because it was the first planet that held life when he was born/created from all the planets and is the part of him that keeps his heart warm. When his tears hit the Earth, they become violets because the algae growing on the earth when he was created was purple, which is also why his eyes are purple. A wrinkle in time is mentioned. (Madeleine L’Engle, 1962) It was written using a lot of Einstein’s theories concerning time and various forms of it- fits into all this ridiculously well and a great story.**

**In Norse mythology Heimdall set the social structures in the world. He traveled the lands and slept between _three_ older couples who were kind enough to allow him to stay and did not have children. (He did not bed these mortals, he gifted them with their own children for their hospitality) In nine months’ time, each bore a child who set levels in society = royalty, middle class, and working class. The number nine is significant throughout the story as is the number three because they are linked to Heimdall, Loki Sigyn and everything else.**

**The gods of Asgard did not eat or drink anything but the fruit and wine from the trees in Inun’s garden. In this story Loki will not partake of either. His life force is from another source of energy that will be explained later in the tale and he eats mortal foods.**

**Cousin is what rabbits and hares commonly call each other when they meet.**


	12. Two Brothers Grim(M)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh the weaving begins-

**Two Brothers Grim(M)**

James Meyers; I Don’t Wanna Be Alone

Heimdall returned to the wolves several days later and the wolf’s eyes bulged at the cart he was pulling. He shook his head as the hare sat it down and looked him over, wondering exactly how strong a hare or rabbit was as they made their way back inside with a few smaller parcels. He asked the she wolf if he could use the hearth to make a meal after looking over Loki and sighing. She stepped aside nodding as he started putting things together and all their noses were wiggling as the scents started boiling through the den. Heimdall chuckled as he dipped the first bowl out and shook his head as their pups kept sticking their noses in the air. “We are guests in your home Wolf, and I offer it as freely as you have offered it to me before. Please, eat if you are hungry. I can provide it as long as you allow us to stay here.” The she wolf looked to her mate and he nodded before she ladled out bowls and handed them to their children. Heimdall sat with Loki, tipping the bowl back and watching as the fox swallowed just so he wouldn’t choke.

The pups were slurping as the wolf sat with a bowl, sniffing before he tipped it and blinked as he licked his lips. “This is not meat? Ow did you learn to cook this?”

“The rabbits I stayed with showed me. Most of it is not meat. I watched your mate cooking and knew it would cook well with everything else.” Heimdall replied as he tipped the bowl again, keeping an eye on the fox who was shaking his head as he swallowed. “It has meat in it, fish from your stores and some kind of...frogs, I think. They are both things he needs.” He sat the bowl down and turned, finding all their eyes on him as Loki sputtered several times and rolled over. The pups shot back yelping and the wolves backed away as his red eyes opened on them briefly and closed again.

“Is this a fox or a demon you bring into my home? No mammal has red eyes!”

Heimdall looked back to Loki squaring his shoulders. “He is no demon. He is a fox. He is ill and his eyes will change when he is recovered.”

The wolf nodded as he clenched his jaw and narrowed his eyes. “I will trust you because I have given it to you already. If I discover you lie, and my family is in danger I will tear you to shreds, Hare.”

Heimdall nodded as he took a seat looking back at Loki. “I wish only to protect those I care for the same as you, Wolf. Perhaps I can ease your minds with the stories of how you came to be and tales of the gods?”

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Heimdall sat for weeks caring for the fox, and telling the stories of the gods as Loki recovered. The red fox rolled to his side and opened his eyes on the buck as Heimdall smiled and leaned forward. “Hello, Brother. I need a small task of you. It is all I will ask until you can stand.”

Loki growled as he shook his head and looked around. “Can you not hear her screaming, Heimdall?”

The hare curled his brow and sat straight as Loki looked around and shook his head. “I hear nothing but what I have always heard.”

The fox closed his eyes as he rolled over again. “She cries, so often that I can never sleep, that there is no rest. Only in the moments of silence do I find any peace.”

Heimdall sat away as he looked over the fox, curling his brow and setting his ears high as they swiveled back and forth. “Has he gone mad?” The wolf asked in a low voice as he stayed a few feet away from the fox. “Perhaps his eyes are red because he is already mad? There is a new illness that plagues this world. It takes over the mind and kills the body. The ones afflicted refuse to eat or drink. They bite, but do not hunt. They say if they bite you, they try to steal your blood and you become one of them, that you will lose your mind, die to the madness that sets the mind on fire as the one who bit you steals your soul.”

Heimdall turned to him shaking his head as the wolf looked around several times, watching the fox. “Where did this illness come from?” he asked the wolf as he curled his lip.

The wolf shook his head and sighed as he pointed to the fox. “If that is what ails him, you must take him from my home now, before he becomes one of the creatures that carries it! They say they fly through the air and damn you to becoming undead!”

Heimdall turned back to Loki letting his eyes fall as he ran a paw down his face and fought not to sob, biting his cheek and pinching his eyes. “Are these the only new creatures they tell of?”

The wolf shook his head as the hare stifled his breathing. “No. There are serpents that roam the woods and hide in the darkness. But most we have seen are small. They call them snakes. They say there are many kinds, but that some will strike with a bite that will set the blood on fire and cause the body to swell and explode from within. Those bitten usually die in agony and scream, saying they are on fire from the pain it causes. I have heard tell that some even look as if they are burning from the inside as their skin splits open.”

Heimdall stood clearing his eyes before he turned and shook his head. “No. Neither is the illness that plagues him. You must never speak of any of this with him. He battles a far more painful ailment. His mate died. He will not be able to handle such tales and may seek them out if he hears of them.”

The wolf's ears tipped back and his mate let her head drop as she looked away. “They are like wolves in this way? They have only one mate?” the wolf asked and Heimdall nodded as his eyes hit the floor. The wolf looked back to the fox as Loki whined lowly and pinned his ears back as he sighed. “Then we understand why he ails. We will do nothing that may upset him further, Hare. Not when our kind knows this way and lives by it as well.”

The wolves left him as Heimdall retook his seat, looking back to the fox as he rubbed his temples. “Loki.” The fox barely cracked his eyes open and exhaled heavily as he looked at his brother. “I need you to change the color of your eyes.”

Loki barely shook his head as Heimdall dropped his into his chest. “I will not shift. I told her I would not be anything but a fox.”

“I AM NOT ASKING YOU TO BE ANYTHING BUT A FOX!” Heimdall whispered as he clutched the end of both his ears and sighed as he deflated. “I only ask that you change the color of your eyes. They have never seen a fox so closely and are not questioning your fur, only your eyes! Brother, you are not alone, you do not have to go home, but you cannot stay in this bed any longer, at least attempt something!”

“For what reason, Heimdall?! What is the reason behind any life when it has no purpose, no joy!?”

Heimdall ran a paw over his face as he sighed. “Loki, these mammals are of you and Sigyn, your children. The first of all wolves came from your son cast here by Father. They have been generous enough to let us stay in their home and shared what they have with us! Think of something…something she loved that can be a reason to change them just for the time we are here! Give them something to know they do need not fear you and pay it back… for her!”

The fox blinked slowly, his eyes turning from the hare to the floor. Loki shuttered several times as Heimdall watched them fade from red to a bright green. The hare sat up shaking his head as Loki blinked away several tears. “Green?” Heimdall asked as Loki sobbed and shook his head.

“Peas. She would not eat anything she cooked for me except the peas. She even carried them around in her pocket so she could…” he trailed off with his chest bouncing and barely managed to roll over as Heimdall let his eyes fall, and looked back to see the she wolf cupping a paw over her mouth as she shook her head.

“You are not what you appear to be. There are few hares in this part of the world. I have never seen purple eyes either. You are the gods in the stories you tell?” He looked away fighting tears as she kept her eyes on him. Heimdall nodded as his eyes crested and she shook her head, watching as he lost a single tear that hit the floor. She cupped a paw over her muzzle and giggled as a small purple flower sprang up in its place. The hare looked at her wide eyed as she smiled and stepped closer. “We offered our home to a god? Now two who ask us to help them?”

Heimdall looked off and blinked before he nodded as he smiled and shrugged. “We all need help at times.”

The she wolf laughed as she sat beside him looking over the fox as she agreed. “Our children will truly be the keepers of law?” Heimdall chuckled as he nodded and looked back watching Loki as he breathed heavily in the sleep had fallen into. “If you are Heimdall …he must be,” she blinked as she looked back at the hare and Heimdall lowered his head as he chuckled again.

“He is Loki? The father of all wolves and foxes in this world. His son was the first wolf in this world, and from his son the foxes and other canines here came…” The she wolf looked back at him sadly, shaking her head. “His name was Narfi?” She asked as Heimdall sighed.

“Yes. It meant Death. Both his sons were named after our Father.”

“It is as if it were fate. Their names. The brother he killed was Nari, if the name meant corpse, Narfi was the cause of his dea….” She stopped and dropped her eyes as Heimdall turned away. “I am sorry. They were your family too, weren’t they? It is difficult for me to think of a fox and a hare being brothers. But I can see you truly are brothers.” She whispered as she stood and placed a paw on his shoulder. “We will join you shortly, Heimdall.”

“What is your name? Your mate's name?” Heimdall asked as she stepped away. The she wolf smiled as he shook his head. “It would not be good if others knew who we really are, but I would like to know your names.”

The she wolf dipped her head as she nodded. “I cannot keep such a secret from my mate, but there is no reason to tell the children.” The hare nodded as he tilted his ears forward. She smiled as she cupped her paws in front of herself. “My name is Ezra. My mate's name is Nason.” Heimdall thanked her and watched as Loki’s whiskers twitched. He caught the movement behind him and turned, seeing Nason staring at him before he crawled into the bed and laughed as him and Loki were both piled on by a bunch of preteen pups. The two older wolves crawled in, curling around them and Nason watched his mate nuzzling several of their pups to settle down before he closed his eyes.

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Heimdall stood looking over the land the next morning and tipped his ears back as the wolf approached him. He kept a smile on his face as the wolf stepped beside him and looked him over with a scowl. “You expect me to believe you are a god? You may have my mate fooled with your stories, but I am not so easily convinced, Hare.”

Heimdall shrugged as he looked around, letting his ears tick back and forth. “I expect you to believe what you choose and nothing more. It does not change what I am, why I am here, or the arrangements we have made, does it?”

The wolf ticked one cheek up shaking his head as he kept his eyes on the buck. “I suppose it does not. But I do not wish for you to fill my pups minds with nonsense. If you still tell these stories, then give me a reason to believe them.”

Heimdall turned to him frowning as he narrowed his eyes. “Do you know that it is unwise to tempt a god?”

The wolf laughed as he looked around and shook his head. “But you are not a god. You are just a hare.”

The wolf looked back still grinning and his face dropped as the hare dropped his head. “I will do this once, to prove I am truthful and keep your respect and your trust. You told me it was given freely and under the circumstances I can see how it could be lost. If you tell anyone outside your family of this, you will lose all I have given your children as a future.” The wolf nodded as Heimdall sighed. The hare stepped out of the shadows and removed his robe and shirt, holding his arms out as the sun came over the hill. Nason gawked as his fur lit up and the hare looked back to him smiling as he glowed. He turned and shoved his feet into the ground and was gone as the wolf let his jaw drop. Nason jumped as he felt a tap on his shoulder and turned, falling to his rear with his mouth hanging open as Heimdall looked down at him smiling. “Enough proof for you?”

The wolf nodded absently as Heimdall picked up his shirt and robe, throwing them back on quickly, and ducking back under the shade as several of the pups ran from the den laughing. Heimdall gawked as Loki stormed out after them, cursing as he wiped his face off and growling as he ran his muzzle along his arm trying to remove something from his fur. Heimdall tipped his head to one side and cocked a brow as the red fox kept wiping off his face growling. Nason looked mortified as Ezra came out with wide eyes, while Heimdall stepped closer to Loki and crinkled his nose. “PRIMITIVE HEATHENS!” Loki screamed as he shook his head and waved his arms around.

“Ugh, you are in dire need of a bath, Loki.” Heimdall shot as he pinched his nose.

The red fox looked back at him snarling and snatched him around the neck as his paw lit up, sending flames from his palm around the hare’s neck. Heimdall deadpanned him as he grabbed the fox’s wrist and a crust of ice wrapped around his paw before the fox stepped back hissing and wringing out his paw. The pups that had run from the den ducked behind their father as Nason’s eyes twitched. “You brought me here! Where those- those animals did this! And why the hell are we so small!” Loki screamed as Heimdall raised his head.

The hare gave him an incredulous glare as he raised a brow. “You know when we pass through the bridge that we become their size unless we are using our powers when we arrive. They are only pups, Loki.”

The red fox curled his muzzle as his lips pulled over his teeth and dropped his brow to an angry line as Heimdall bit his lip. “You think this funny?! THEY PI-

“LOKI! They are children! Just, consider it being…. anointed!”

Loki snarled as he ticked his eyes around and ground out every word through clenched teeth . “I AM NOT A TOY, A POSSESSION OR TERRITORY! And we have never marked someone like …THIS!”

Heimdall nodded as he looked over the fox who was damp and irate as he laughed. “But it got you out of bed, did it not?”

Loki’s face fell as Heimdall kept snickering. “You put them up to this did you not?” He asked as his lips vibrated and the hare smirked before he shot the other direction with an enraged fox chasing after him.

The fox chased the hare and Heimdall laughed as they entered a forest, before stopping and looking around. His ears tipped and he looked back, ducking before he shot up with wide eyes as a ball of flame flew through the trees. Heimdall shot a wall of ice around the tree it set on fire and smirked as he ducked around another tree. Loki narrowed his eyes as he looked around and set several trees on fire, laughing as part of one shot out cursing. He threw a puff of magic in the same direction and fell over laughing as Heimdall fell out of the form of part of a tree. “I may not be able to burn you brother, but I know that trick well enough to counter it!”

The hare sighed as he pat himself down and stopped as he felt around his ears. “Loki! THIS IS NOT FUNNY! CHANGE ME BACK! I am not meant to have branches on my head! There is nothing gracious about this!” He looked up seeing Nason, Ezra, and their pups all watching wide eyed as Loki rolled around the ground laughing.

“Gracious? You wish to be a gracious god and you asked them to PISS ON ME!? Maybe I should call you Jack. Now you look as if you are part antelope brother! A Jackelope! You should thank me, you do not need to use any of your powers here now, you can just run them through with your new horns!”

Heimdall glared as Loki kept laughing. “This is NOT funny Loki, change me back! Get rid of them! I cannot travel this world with these…things on my head! You know I do not carry enough of mother's magic to counter yours!”

The hare lowered his brow and shot a blast of ice. Loki looked up before rushing behind a tree. “I will not change it back! You told them to piss on me!”

The two fought as the wolves watched, shaking their heads. “Brothers and Gods they truly are.” Nason whispered as he nodded and looked to his own sons. “I hope they do not destroy the whole of the forest.”

Heimdall crouched lower, watching as Loki looked around, and waited until the fox had nearly stepped to him before he encased him in a block of ice and stood up grinning as they locked eyes. The hare scrunched his muzzle and tapped his nose. “You need a bath, Brother!” He stepped back and held his paws up, throwing more ice over the fox. It grew as what Loki was already encased in started melting when his fur caught fire. Heimdall ducked behind a tree as the flames melted the water and a small flood rushed over his feet before he laughed. The hare jumped as Loki growled, and threw his head back as the fox shot forward snarling in his face.

The fox glared before his eyes grew heavy and Heimdall caught his arms as he leaned into a tree, panting. “You have not enough of your strength back yet to be exerting so much of your energy, Loki. But you are clean.”

Loki looked back at him scowling as he narrowed his eyes. “You brought me among filthy mongrels! For what reason do you torture me with this….HELL!” he asked as Heimdall lifted a brow smiling.

“They are your children Loki, perhaps you should teach them better?” The fox blinked as his face fell and turned shaking his head. “They are not my children. All my children are lost. Sigyn is lost and I…”

Heimdall stepped closer, tipping his head as Loki’s eyes stayed on the ground. “They are yours and Sigyn’s children, Loki. Narfi was thrown to this world. Mother made another for him so he would not be alone, and others sprang from them. In our land you Fathered Fenrir. In this land, it was Narfi who fathered the wolves, the foxes.”

Loki blinked as he looked back and found Heimdall smirking. “Foxes? There are other foxes?”

“Come Brother. I will show you, if you remove these _things_ from my head…….”

**Notes; The name Jack means Grace of Gods and son of John. A jackelope is a mythical creature that doesn’t exist; a jackrabbit with the horns of some kind of deer. But in Zootopia- this is where the idea name came from and why the name is given to another species that shouldn’t exist. Heimdall is the one who spent several years gathering the foxes and trying to get them to work together. He built the town of Gosforth where Loki later tricked them into sharing by making bark soup. If you have not read the other section of the story, it is called stone, or button soup in fables. Heimdall lived as a mortal for a time and was ‘adopted’ by dwarfs, he was sent to the world as a mortal infant and found in a boat. The dwarves taught him how to make tools. He traveled around the world showing others how to make and use the tools the dwarves taught him how to make. He also set social structures in the world in Norse mythology and is the ‘Father’ of society. Heimdall’s children-**

**A madness caused from being bitten that sets the mind on _fire_ and those who ail from it refuse to eat and can infect others through being bitten- Rabies. Spread primarily through bats. Being bitten by a venomous snake also sets the blood on fire. Venom can cause significant swelling and split the skin open, these are references to Loki and him being the father of the Valkyries. They were split into two species after their tails were removed, Snakes and bats.**


	13. The Black Forest; Hansel And Gretal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No way to explain this- hehe

**The Black Forest – Hansel And Gretel**

Sam the Sham; Little Red Riding Hood

Heimdall waited until the fox had caught his footing and managed to remove the horns he’d left him with before leading him back to the den they were sharing with wolves. Loki watched for several weeks and sighed as the wolf returned one evening, tired and covered in soot and dirt they’d been digging in. “You do not rest on any day?”

Nason shook his head as Ezra sat a bowl in front of him, and Heimdall smirked as the fox looked around at their pups. “You shall from this day. Each day shall have a name, set upon by the gods.”

Nason tipped his head as Loki leaned forward, smirking. “The first day shall be named after the sun, and that day you will rest in the light that makes all things shine.” Heimdall’s face fell in shock as Loki looked back to him grinning. “This was your idea, coming here, Brother. Why would the first day not be named after you?”

The hare shook his head chuckling as he leaned forward. “Then the next day should be named after the moon, should it not?”

Loki smirked again as he raised his brows. “The others? How many should there be?”

“Use the moon, it is what you were created from, is it not?” Nason chirped as he looked up from his bowl, blinking as Loki smiled wider.

Heimdall nodded as he looked around. “Divide it by the stages of the sun hitting the moon.” Loki and Heimdall sat with Ezra and Nason talking until they figured out how they wanted everything arranged and the fox and hare bantered openly regarding the names of five more days set within a week of four that would become a month. By the time they left the wolves, it had been decided which gods each day was named after. They left the den they were staying in with the wolves and Heimdall kept Loki’s mind from wandering with the distractions of the world. They walked to a large wooded area and Loki’s ears tipped back and forth as they moved, watching the shadows dancing around the trees as he shook his head. “This place is dark. Why would any choose to live in such a place?”

Loki turned in a circle as strange sounds and flapping caught his attention and Heimdall looked around cringing as he caught sight of the cave system he hoped the fox wouldn’t notice. “Fear, Loki. They live here because everyone is afraid of them, and they fear others for that reason.”

“The other mammals fear foxes?” He asked as Heimdall motioned another direction.

“Look around, Brother. You will see why. They live in a place most others will not venture to, even in other parts of the world they hide. Most think them evil spirits because they move silently, they hide, and disappear like many cannot. They see in the darkness and have red fur. Thought to be some kind of demon like cats once were in this world. They have been separated from each other. Have low values with their families and tend to care for themselves before others. It is the way of this world. They are just harder to see than many others that have the same qualities. Many here still kill what they fear, they have reason to hide.”

Loki turned as Heimdall’s ears shot up and curled his brow as his nose flared. “Hares?” he asked and Heimdall shook his head as his ears swiveled.

“Hares do not scream like that and are scarce in this part of the world. That was a rabbit. But there should not be any this far north. These lands are still separated between predator and prey. They are just starting to communicate between the two separated by teeth and claw. And none venture to the Black Forest where the foxes live. That means the only reason they would be here is because they are…”

“Being hunted.” Loki growled as his head fell. Both their ears set as a scream came close enough that they turned and set eyes on a young pair of rabbits. They were followed by foxes yipping and laughing as they stalked through the trees. Loki lifted and Heimdall grabbed his shoulder shaking his head.

“They will have no fear of you Brother, not as a fox. You cannot show them you are a god. If they think ill of you, they will never listen.”

Loki dropped to all fours as he narrowed his eyes. The Hare shook his head and the fox’s eyes turned a bright yellow as his fur shifted to black. “Do not use more energy than you have to spare, Loki.”

“I will not shift my form from a fox. That does not mean I cannot grow larger.” Heimdall tipped a brow as Loki took off running and growled loud enough to stop the foxes in their tracks. He slid in and out of the trees as the bunnies ducked into the hollow of a tree and were looking around wide eyed as a huge black canine circled them. “It’s a fox!” one cried as the others shook their heads.

“It’s a Wolf! It’s too large to be a fox!” another Tod spat as he looked around, swinging as the black fur slipped between the trees again.

“WHERE IS THE WOLF! WHERE IS THE WOLF!” Another screamed as he turned, trying to get a good look at the animal circling them.

The fox who had cornered the two kits tipped his ears back and pinned them to his head as a howl pierced the air. “WHERE ARE YOU WOLF?! WHERE, WOLF?” He screamed, and stepped back gawking. The others stumbled with him as a huge black fox stepped out of the tree line with glowing yellow eyes. “IT IS NO WOLF! IT IS A HOUND FROM HELL! RUN!”

Loki snarled and let saliva drip from his teeth as he dropped to all fours and spread his toes, getting ready for a chase as they all screamed and turned tail. The fox looked back seeing the kits cowering together and slipped behind the trees again, before he fell from the form looking around for Heimdall. He found no trace of his brother as he caught his breath and used what strength he had to shift again as he shook his head. “I cannot be anything other than a fox.”

He closed his eyes cringing as he took a familiar shape that almost held more pain than he could bear. He stepped from behind the trees as the two bunnies cried into each other and stuck a cane into the ground as he leaned forward. “Are you lost in these woods?” he asked as two pairs of eyes scrunched together screaming again.

“A fox! A fox who will eat us! We know you will cook us for your dinner and eat us!” they cried as he stood up and shook his head.

“I am too old to chase, too old to try and chew anything with no teeth. I do not eat others.” Loki said in a cracked voice as he stood and leaned into the cane. The young doe pulled her red hood down looking up, and curled back into her brother as the old fox with no teeth smiled. “I will not arm you.”

They opened their eyes peeking up out of the tree and saw an old vixen standing in front of them, greying fur, a hunched back, gummy smile and withered paws clutching the cane she leaned on to support her frame. “See? I am as harmless as another bunny.” The old vixen chuckled as she playfully prodded them with her cane. “Too chewy! I must eat things much smaller that are well cooked and to cook such cute little things like you would be an awful waste when you may keep me company for a while. I am a lonely old soul and would like the company.” Both bunnies’ ears tipped as the old vixen leaned forward and held out her paw, their eyes growing wide when carrots appeared in her palm.

“You are a witch!” the young buck whimpered as the old vixen chuckled again.

“I am a witch. My name is Pokk. Just because I am a witch does not mean I will harm you. Where are your parents?” she asked, and both their ears fell.

The young doe sniffled as she looked back to her brother. “Papa was cutting wood and Mamma was loading it in the cart. We were going to take it to Grandma. She always makes us such pretty things. See, she made my hood for me. When the foxes came, they told us to run. We heard them screaming but kept running when the others chased us away.”

The old vixen hummed as she sighed, and leaned into her cane. Loki had a good idea Heimdall had caught the sound of others and had rushed off to help them. He looked at the young kits in front of him, disguised as the same witch that denied returning Baldur from Hel. “What are your names?”

The bunnies looked at each other, letting their heads fall as he perked his aged looking ears. “Hans and Greta.”

“Hans and Greta. Come, night is nigh. Walk with me so you are safe. I will build you a home to keep you warm. This night grows dark and it is not safe for bunnies in the Black Forest. You should not be walking in these spooky woods alone.” They each looked at each other as the witch held out a paw, and hesitantly took it as Loki led them away from the area to a place darker than what they’d already seen.

“How will you build a home when you can barely hold your weight? Papa said all witches were bad and magic is bad.” The buck asked as he clutched his sister’s paw.

“I am a witch. My magic likes darkness. That does not mean what I make with it will be dark. Watch.” Loki smirked as he looked back at the two bunnies and they each froze as the old witch dropped her cane and held her paws up as they set on fire. She stuck them into the ground and both bunnies' faces dropped as they looked around, seeing the trees move and open to the sky as plants started growing. Vines curled from the ground and twisted as they wove together. Where there had once been a barren patch of land there now sat a little cottage built from the small trees and plants that had grown from the warmth of the fire the old witch had burned into the Earth. Loki looked back chuckling as the bunnies let their mouths hang open. Watching the vines the little cottage was made of blossom with flowers as fruit and several kinds of vegetables grew in their place. He stood up huffing as he clutched the cane again and sighed as Hans and Greta looked the old witch over, before running to the little cottage and grabbing enough food to fill the shirts and hoods they were wearing like bowls. “Do not make yourselves sick!” Loki chuckled as he leaned into the cane, and fought to keep his eyes open. “I am old and tire easily. Help me inside children, there is a warm fire and all the food you can eat grows on the house. It will be gone before the sun falls tomorrow night. But you can stay here until my friend returns. He can take you out of the Black Forest.”

“How will he find us?” Great asked as Hans nibbled on a green bean.

Hans and Greta both looked back and the old witch laughed as they tipped their heads. “He will follow the trail I left, made from the petals that grew here. This spell will keep you hidden, and no one will be able to hear or see any of it, except for my friend, who will know it is a message for him to come find me. He will be the only one the house will allow to come inside.” The bunnies followed the old witch inside and watched as she took a seat, turning as the entrance to the little cottage made of living plants sealed itself with vines and green leaves that sprung from the branches. The witch motioned to the walls and the young rabbits ate the apples, green beans and other things that had grown until their bellies were so full they had to lie down. They fell asleep with the old witch watching as she kept the fire at the center burning in a section of the earth that had risen as clay like a kiln, to protect the living parts of the house. Loki closed his eyes and curled into a ball beside the fire. The fox chuckled as the little bunnies moved closer and threw his cloak over them as they nudged under his chin and fell asleep…..

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Heimdall watched the fox circling the others who were hunting two young bunnies and frowned as his ears sat rigid. The hare rushed away to the sounds coming from another part of the forest and shot through an opening that had been cleared by the cutting of trees. Several foxes had run back to the area as the others were gathering the wood that had been cut. A few had huddled around a rabbit buck and were speaking jovially about how he would make a nice stew.

“It would have been a better stew had he not swallowed the doe whole.” A fox griped as he pointed back to a tree where another lay with a belly looking like he was heavy with child.

The buck’s eyes were glazed and foggy as Heimdall kept his robe closed and stood at the edge of the clearing. “You do not hail from Gosforth. Why are you in these woods?”

They all turned before one stood straighter looking him over. “Aye! It’s another rabbit! We will feast tonight!”

Heimdall smirked as he looked around and chuckled. He knew he couldn’t use his powers as a god to fight in the mortal world. Not when his godly strength would cause more harm to the land and mammals in it than using his physical strength. He threw the robe to the side and pulled his sword still smiling. “I am a Hare, not a rabbit and I think you count your chickens before they are hatched.”

The fox sneered as the hare twirled his sword, smiling. “Rabbit, hare, still it is meat we will feast on.”

Heimdall looked around lazily and shrugged. “You hunt for those who hold thought? When you should be eating the fish, the bugs, the frogs, the birds? It is laziness I see in you. You prey on those who have their eyes turned and would die to protect others. I see no challenge, no will in any of you. If you think me such an easy meal, come and eat.”

The fox snarled as the others around him growled. The hare jumped as the fox leapt at him and grabbed a tree limb, swinging into it before he looked down laughing. “If you wish to meet an early death, continue with this and my blade will be what leads you to all mortal Fate.”

The fox snarled again and tried to jump, but fell and slid down into the darkness as Heimdall looked to the others. Their ears set as the fox who had fallen screamed and rushed back from the dark hollow he’d slipped into. His eyes were red as he crawled from the hole and Heimdall twisted his head as the other foxes stepped away, watching him writhing as he screamed. The hare’s eyes widened as snakes started pouring from the ground. They twisted and curled around each other, creating a massive maleficent beast, each snakes head became a single scale that spat venom and set the foxes eyes on fire as it touched any open area of skin. “Dragon!” they screamed, trying to run away as Heimdall jumped from the tree and held his sword up in front of it with a curled lip. The rabbit who was nearly unconscious watched the fighting through the haze of his eyes as Heimdall jumped around slashing at the beast. His shirt caught the hitch at the back of his sword sheath as he jumped above the trees and flew open to each side as the sun hit his fur, making him look as if he were glowing as he raised his sword for a final blow. The snakes flew apart and scattered back into the earth after the hare struck and landed with both sides of his shirt flowing at each side of his arms. Heimdall looked and found the buck blinking at him with heavy lids as the rabbit muttered. “An Angel of Death….” He passed out as Heimdall looked around and curled his lip when he caught the sight of red fur dodging behind a tree. He listened as the vixen cursed, and drew his sword, cutting open the belly of the fox who had swallowed the doe and pulled the doe from him, blinking as she gasped for air. Heimdall kept listening as the vixen tried to hide, and filled the fox’s belly with stones before sealing him again, knowing when he went to drink from the river, the rocks would weigh him so much he would drown.

He placed the doe next to her mate as she looked up squinting. “Such big teeth he had….” She passed out with her mate as Heimdall looked back and narrowed his eyes. The hare stepped around the trees with his sword held up and shoved it forward at the vixen who was trying to stay hidden. He looked back to the fox still groaning on the ground and shook his head at the older vixen. “They are your sons? You teach them to kill the weak, and hide while they fight?” She swallowed as Heimdall dropped his brow and shook his head. “If you hide, that will be the lot you have in this life.” The vixen screamed as he threw a satchel over her and drug it back to the tod, before tossing it over him and pulling a cord that shrank them both into the little pouch it became. He left the Tod who’d swallowed the doe to his fate as he picked up the rabbits ax, sticking it in his waistband. He stuck the pouch with it before he went about putting the injured bunnies in the cart and took them to the rabbits he’d helped with their fields. He left them, saying he would return in a day’s time with the kits they’d lost.

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Heimdall smirked as he found the trail of flower petals and followed them into a glen where a small green cottage sat. He stepped closer, smiling as the branches twisted away, and walked in letting his jaw drop as his cheek ticked up in shock.

Loki groaned as he tried to roll over and found the weight on his chest uncomfortable. He looked up seeing Heimdall gawking at him before the hare sighed and shook his head. “Fool fox. You fed them with things grown from your magic?”

Loki blinked as he tried to shrug. “They were hungry! Why is that such an issu-” he looked down letting his brows rise as Heimdall covered his chuckling mouth. “FAT! FAT, RABBITS!” Loki screamed before they sat from his chest, rubbing their eyes and yawning.

“Who are you?” the young buck asked as he yawned.

Heimdall bit his cheek as the young buck pointed at the ax in his belt. “I am uh…. A wood’s hare. A wood cutter.” Heimdall watched as they both caught sight of each other and screamed.

Hans and Greta looked at each other before their lips trembled, and bawled as they clung to each other. “The witch means to eat us! She made us fat for her dinner!”

Loki shook his head in protest as he stood, and closed his eyes while Heimdall turned around laughing. “I do not eat children! My friend… the wood cutter- will take you back to your parents.” Heimdall smirked as he motioned to the door and tossed Loki the small pouch as both young bunnies stepped outside. He explained what happened and Loki looked at the pouch with a turned lip as Heimdall told him he would return in a few days’ time. He left with the little bunnies and Loki waited until they were out of sight before he opened the pouch, spilling the foxes onto the ground.

They looked up, seeing an old vixen glaring at them as the tod still felt himself burning from the venom. The older vixen stood, curling her lip as the old witch dropped her head. “What are we here for?! You are not the hare who captured us! He held magic in his pouch, and you hold no power!” she looked herself over as the old witch began to grow and back to her son. Seeing the witch was not growing larger, but both grew smaller, she looked up squeaking.

“Do you believe I hold power now?” They both looked to her trembling as she pointed an old wrinkled finger at them. “No fox should have a heart of stone! You shall both wonder this land as the small things that are hunted, so you know the fear you have instilled in others! Tod, you shall keep the fire that burns from the venom through your veins! You will only be able to leave the water for a few hours each night and must return to it, or that fire will dry your skin and you will crack open and die from the heat. Vixen! You shall never be any larger than the thimble that rests on a thumb of one who sews! You will both sneak from the water and plants each night and tell the story of how you came to be, and teach the fox kits of this world the true ways of a fox. You each must find one who will love you as you are. Tod must seek one who will be his true friend, a vixen who will befriend him and allow him to sleep on her pillow or a kiss will return you to a true fox. You must make her feel like the princess only you will see her as, only then will you become the prince she wishes for. Until then the fire will continue to burn under your skin! Vixen, you shall never be any larger than the love you taught your children. Your voice will be unheard by all but children and each time a venomous word leaves you or your heart, you will grow smaller! Until another vixen sees you and takes you as her own child, you shall stay as small as the heart you held for others! Until a true mother shows you what you should have taught your children! You will both stay in these forms until all the fox kits in these lands know the true ways of a fox as you tell the stories each night! Until the hearts of stone you have are turned to clay by ones who truly love and accept you as you are after your hearts become what should have always been!” They each watched as the little house around them fled back into the ground and Loki tossed the fox he turned to a frog to a small creek before he plucked a flower from the ground and sat the tiny vixen inside it. He waved a paw over it, closing the top petals before tossing it above the trees, where the wind caught it, frowning in disapproval as he watched it fly away with the wind….

**Notes; Days of the week are often said to be named after many ancient civilizations. In Norse Mythology, this is how they are considered.**

**Sunday- After the sun – Sol. In this story Loki did it because Heimdall is called the god of white due to how he looks when the sun hits his fur.**

**Monday- After the moon-Mani. Loki in this story.**

**Tuesday - Tyr**

**Wednesday- Odens day (Woden’s day, often called this in ancient times) Still think it’s a tad ironic that he was called Woden when he created the first two people on the world and they were literally born/made from trees-**

**Thursday- Thor’s day**

**Friday – Frigg or Freya’s day**

**Saturday- Saturn- only reference for this day that connects is Njord, the god of fun and feasts, there was no Saturday in Norse mythology.**

**The black forest is where the Brothers Grimm wrote the stories of their fairy tales after they were collected from folk tales. Playing with a lot of words here that I'm going to have to point out in some cases- “You shall both _wonder this land_ as the small things that are hunted so you know the fear you have instilled in others!” Wonderland. Earth is Wonderland.**

**“WHERE ARE YOU WOLF? WHERE, WOLF?!” = Werewolf - A giant black fox larger than a wolf, who howled like a wolf, with glowing yellow eyes that was also called a hound from hell.**

**Pokk is the name of the witch who denied Baldur’s return that Loki disguised himself as, she is also the name of the one who made Bark, or stone/button soup. Hans and Greta are Hansel and Gretel and her red hood is also part of the story, Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. Heimdall carried Loki from Asgard back to the world. Hares are significantly smaller than foxes. Keep in mind Heimdall and Loki are not mortal and hold strength from what they were each created from. Loki holds the power of creation and life because he was born from the fires that created the Earth when the moon crashed into it. It’s why he can grow plants with the fire he has by sticking his paws in the ground. Heimdall has the strength of planets because he was made from each of them and has a bigger connection with the Earth because the algae that grew and survived when the moon and Earth crashed together is what created oxygen. It also evolved into the first flowers of the world, purple flowers now known as violets in Zootopia.**

**Stories used from the brothers Grimm may not all be listed, and a few other fairy tales popped up. Some were brought to life through Loki, while others came from Heimdall or both of them working together. Stories and fables are twisted over time, and in this world, this is where each one came from; these two gods walking among mortals.**

**Hansel and Gretel- Their parents cutting wood. The house Loki grew from the plants is the ‘candy’ cottage in the woods. The fruit and vegetables that grew on the side of the house represent the candy. Anything Loki grows as far as plants are concerned will make a mortal fat if they eat it. Though I think most of the references are obvious and won’t be listing all of them, the flower petals Loki leaves for Heimdall to find him represent the breadcrumbs left so they could find their way home. An ax wielding man who cut the old woman from the wolf’s belly.**

**Little red riding hood and the Big Bad Wolf.**

**Maleficent- definition is; causing harm or destruction, especially through supernatural means. A prince who beat a dragon from the story Sleeping Beauty.**

**Heimdall tells the vixen whose sons** **are trying to eat the rabbits that her lot in life will be to hide. Vixen’s** **hide after they have kits to keep them safe in a world that is not friendly with foxes. He sort of cursed them-**

**Thumbelina - The vixen Loki shrinks and sends away in the petals of a folded flower.**

**Frog prince- The tod Loki turns into a frog who must find a vixen who will see him as a prince and allow him to sleep on her pillow or change him with a kiss. In the real story- the princess he found was not friendly and threw him into a wall, she was disgusted by the frog.**


	14. The Black Forest; A Sleeping Princess

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Were there three of them?

**The Black Forest - A Sleeping Princess**

Lana Del Ray; Once upon a Dream

Loki hung his head and sighed after watching Heimdall leave, nearly jumping as several young tod’s rustled behind him. They each had wonder in their eyes as they took a hesitant step closer. “Witch, do you help others as well as vex them? You cursed them to be kind, do you hold any kindness?”

Loki curled his lip up and nodded. “Cursed… with kindness?” He chuckled as he shook his head. “I will help those who help me. I am weak and my strength fails me.”

The young tod’s all looked to the left as their brother was lost in a sneezing fit from the pollen of the plants Loki had sent back to the ground. Another yawned as he let his eyes droop. Loki looked around smiling as the oldest stepped closer. “Our sister ails. She is in the sleep that hides from death. Do you have a spell that will save her?”

“She ails with what little doctor?” Loki asked as he leaned into the cane.

An angry scowling little Tod growled as he lowered his brow. “She cannot help! The witch looks as if she may die any moment and we do not need to bring more death home!”

“A grumpy little thing aren’t you, young Tod?” Loki asked, snickering as another brother seemed to be lost in chasing the butterflies and tripping over vines as he struggled to get his paws out of the sleeves that hung too low. “What ails this one?” Loki asked, pointing at the young fox who fell on his rear with a dopey smile.

“He was born that way. He doesn’t talk and was always a little slow.” Another brother fell over laughing as he tried to catch the butterfly, and rolled on the ground until tears were streaming from his face.

Loki smirked as he leaned forward and tilted his head. “Happy. I have not seen you in so long.” His head turned as a branch snapped and caught another little tod peeking around a tree before darting behind it again. “Come out, there is no reason to be bashful, little Tod.”

The young fox came out as Loki leaned over and scrunched his nose. All they could see was an old vixen with no teeth and aging grey fur as he leaned forward. “I am Pokk, you are very cute.” The young fox’s ears dipped back as he stuck his paws behind his back and ran his foot along the ground as he shied his eyes with his ears tinting brightly. Loki stood smiling and nodded. “Take me to your sister. I will see if I can help, but no magic can change death once it has come to the door.”

The little fox who had approached first bounced up and grabbed his paw as he pointed the way. “She sleeps. Her breath is weak and Papa says she will not live long. He hunts for us each day but cannot care for her all the time since our mother passed.”

Loki nearly stumbled forward and caught his breath as all the little tod’s bowed their heads. “What happened to your mother, little doctor?”

The tod looked back at him and shied his eyes. “She passed in the winter. When it was cold and she got sick. She never woke up either.”

Loki cringed as they stepped to a little cottage and walked in with them, finding a young vixen laid out with flowers all around her. “Why is she dressed as if on a deathbed? These flowers are lethal to our kind. Take them away.” The young tod’s frowned at the old witch as she grabbed them and threw them out the window.

“Papa says they will keep her from the cough that took mother!!”

Loki turned scowling and dipped his head. “Little doctor, it may do that, but it will drain the life she has as it poisons her lungs. It will clog her airways and stop her breathing. Stay around them enough and it will do the same to all of you!” Loki looked her over, frowning and shook his head. “How did she become ill?” the young tod’s looked at her and shook their heads as they shrugged. The fox looked around and up to the ceiling, lowering his brow at the plants hanging from the high eaves. “Where did these plants come from?”

“They are a tradition to keep in a home after a death. Our sister brought them after our mother passed.”

Loki sighed as he leaned over and looked the young girl over, pulling her paw from her chest as he held it up and tilted his head. “The poinsettia you keep cannot be around foxes, they have a pollen that will make you ill. This plant you have hanging everywhere is called Mistletoe, its thorns will poison if they break the skin.” They watched wide eyed as he pulled a thorn from her finger and cringed as the infection seeped from the wound.

The young foxes looked at each other before stepping closer to the place their sister lay as the eldest stuck his paws up looking over the top at the witch. “Can you help her? Papa says he would be a king if he did not lose her like we lost mother.”

Loki looked down and cringed as he saw his withered paws. “What is her name Little doctor, she burns with fever. Her blood moves like the auroras before a setting sun. It moves too slowly and grows cold.” Loki lifted a brow and scowled as the young Tod lifted the blanket back and frowned in disgust seeing the dark spots in her fur. “What manner of thought do you have?! You allow parasites to feed on her as she ails and does not wake to eat? How can leeches cure her?!” The young tod’s looked to the oldest and Loki leaned closer as the little fox reached under the vixen before he held his paw open. “Peas….?” Loki blinked as he tried not to let his sorrow flood through his disguise. “Why do you keep peas under her?”

“Papa says as long as her weight flattens them then she will not need to eat. If they aren’t crushed by her weight, we are to wake her and feed her. See, they are still flat.” Loki cupped a paw over his eyes, grumbling as he shook his head. The young tod’s all stepped back dipping their heads as the old witch glared at them. “Her name is Margaretha. Papa says that if there is something bad in her blood, they will take it away.”

The fox sighed as he ran a paw over his face and shook his head. “How can she heal if they steal the blood, the life force she needs to live, leaching it away and making her even weaker? What sense does this make in any world? I cannot help her in this form, and I am too weak to change back without eating something.” Loki leaned over the young vixen and jerked his head to the side as a little Tod tugged on his ragged looking robes. The young fox held up a loaf of bread and several dried fish with a dopey smile and Loki chuckled as he nodded. He sat with them and ate as he asked of their father and discovered he was poor, trying to live on the land that held little for them to thrive on, curling his brow as he looked over the food they’d offered. “Was this all you had in your stores?” Loki asked as they all looked back at him and dipped their heads.

“Father will return in three days’ time with more. If you can help our sister and our father is happy to see her well again, we can still sleep knowing she would live.”

The old witch Loki had become gathered all his strength and let the dampness of his eyes show as he shifted forms and stood looking over seven young tod’s who all gaped at him. “You are a Prince! All you need is to eat to have magic? Why do you hide in the body of an old witch if you are a prince?”

Loki chuckled as he dipped his head and curled the cloak he wore in front of him. “There is a fire in you, do you not feel it burning when you are hungry? Every fire must be fed to keep its strength and I cannot grow fish to eat. I am a prince if you say I am. My magic likes darkness. My father is the greatest of all kings and my mother is the greatest of all queens.”

“You are a prince of…darkness?”

The young foxes watched as Loki stepped closer to his sister and wrinkled his brow as he snickered. “We can light the darkness. We must fight fire with fire. Bring me kindling to warm her.”

The young tod’s looked around and shook their heads. “We may be able to go hungry for a few days, but we cannot spare wood that would keep us warm.” Loki nodded as he looked around and tipped his head as he caught sight of a dusty unused spindle sitting in the corner, they all turned their attention to it as he pointed.

“Break the spinning wheel apart. I can use it to burn the infection and parasites away from her. Do you have any glass?” 

Loki cocked his head to one side as the dopey little fox held up a small mirror. “Not that! It was mother’s!” the little fox Loki kept calling little doctor dipped his ears back as Loki looked into the mirror and sighed.

“Little doctor, Beauty is only found in a mirror on the wall when there is life reflected through it. It may hold sentimental value, but is it worth more than the sister you ask me to save?” The small tod shook his head and they all cringed as Loki smashed it, fascinated as he formed the broken pieces into a set of glass slippers he then palace on the vixen's feet. “Break the wheel apart so I may start a fire.”

The young tod’s broke the spindle apart and all of them were gaping as he sat the pieces around the young vixen and stepped back as his paws lit on fire, screaming as the place she laid and all around her set in flames. Loki held his arm up with a frown as they all tried to jump to save her and shook his head motioning to the flames. “It will not harm her unless I wish it to. The slippers will keep her from getting burnt. The Fire will only burn away what should not be there.”

Their jaws fell as the flames stayed around her, not spreading any further than where his paws hovered, and the young vixen’s fur became so hot that it turned to an ashen white as the flames fell away. The eldest of the young tod’s stepped closer shaking his head. “She is as white as snow!”

Loki nodded as he leaned over. “All things come at a cost. It is a small price to pay to live and will not take from the beauty the sleeping girl will always have.”

They stared as he came close to her face, watching as their lips nearly touched and lifted their brows as he blew a burst of fire into her lungs and pulled it back into his own. Loki stood, smiling as the little vixen arched her back and took a breath, falling back to the bed as she yawned.

“How did you heal her with a kiss? A kiss under the mistletoe!”

Loki laughed as he plucked the flowers from the ceiling and shook his head, tossing them out the window. “I did not kiss her, she is too young for such things to be thought. I used my fire to fight the fire already burning in her that should not have been there. I burned away all the sickness that was in her lungs from the flowers you had here that kept her sleeping, and pulled it away. All foxes were created from the fires of the moon.”

“How will we repay you for a life? A simple meal is not enough for what you have done. How does a fire fight a fire and create life?”

Loki sat beside the vixen, dousing the flames as he looked her over again. “Small things are as much a payment as the large when they are important to the one you give them too. What a fire burns away and leaves behind will allow better and stronger things to grow. Because you offered me all you had to save the one you love, I will give you something to eat that will always help you before I leave.”

“You will not stay to meet her when she wakes? She will never know of you? You will remain a stranger?”

“She will meet me in her dreams, one day.” Loki smirked as he stood and let them cover her again after removing the slippers from her feet. The small fox who seemed to be the oldest gasped as it returned back into a small mirror.

“Now you have a reason to hang the mirror on the wall.” Loki pointed out the window and they all watched as an apple tree grew from the ground, covered in bright red fruit. “I suggest you eat some while I am here, so I can adjust them if they cause problems. They will keep illness away if you eat one each day. But the last food I brought forward made others…fat.”

“You grow things with fire?” A small tod asked as he looked back at his sister.

Loki frowned. “Do you not know the stories of fox fires? The stories of the fireflies, the Tod who tried to put the sun back in the sky as it fell, Kitsukune and Loki?” They shook their heads as he retook a seat. “Do you know the stories of the gods?” they all nodded as he leaned forward and gawked as he held his paw up when his eyes shifted from green to red. “You wish to repay me? Then listen to the stories and tell them to all you meet from this day. Your sister will awake tomorrow and as long as the fire still burns in her, she will live. When your father returns tell him of the wolf who lives a week’s journey from here. He will help him find work in the mines that will better feed you than simple hunting.” Loki waited until they had picked several apples, smiling as they stuck one in their sleeping sister’s paw before they gathered around him munching on the fruit.

He sat telling them stories all night as they stayed around the fire he built in their hearth. In the morning he asked how to get to the town of Gosforth. Seeing no ill effects from the apples as they pointed the direction he needed to go, and left them with their sleeping sister to make his own way….

**Notes;** **Eat one each day- “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Ties in with Snow White and her fur becoming white.**

**“She will meet me in her dreams one day”- Once Upon a Dream. Sleeping beauty, being pricked by a needle and the spinning wheel. Cinderella- a pair of glass slippers that changed her life.**

**“A mirror on the wall will show no Beauty if life is not reflected through it.” - “Now you have a reason to hang the mirror on the wall.” - Mirror Mirror on the wall.**

**The seven little tod’s Loki identified through what they were doing when he met them and how they acted are the seven dwarves- Doc, Dopey, Sleepy, Sneezy, Happy, Bashful and Grumpy. Dwarf is something Odin often called mortals because they were so much smaller. Freya and Odin fought about him giving them this title.**

**The young vixen Loki tends to is referencing Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and the princess and the pea. Yessss, I have them very twisted.**

**This got to Loki because of the peas and the mistletoe. They were thigs she loved or that caused him to lose her. One of the oldest reason’s mistletoe is said to be kissed under is because of Baldur’s death. Versions of the tale vary, but it is said that Frigg cried over the thorn/arrow that killed him and promised a kiss to anyone who passed beneath it after his death. It is poisonous just like poinsettias. Leeching was a common practice and also led to death for obvious reasons in medieval times.**


	15. The Black Forest; Beautiful Repunzel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nope-

**The Black Forest – Beautiful Rapunzel**

Payton Rae; Not Your Cinderella

Loki walked towards the direction of the town, but grew tired and laid along the ground before he fell asleep. When he woke, he curled his brow as he lifted his arms. The little pouch Heimdall had given him was gone and he sniffed as he curled his brow and raised his head scowling. He followed the scent back to a small den he clawed at, and pulled two foxes from the ground as he bared his teeth. The vixen and Tod looked at him in shock as he ticked his eyes between them. “Thieves! No fox steals, no fox shall ever take without giving back what they have taken!”

“We did not steal!” The vixen cried as Loki held her up, narrowing his eyes.

“And lies! No fox will ever lie! Return what you have taken and admit the truth and I will leave you be!” Both foxes shook their heads, insisting they didn’t take what had been stolen and lying about it as Loki squared his shoulders and dropped them to the ground. “What comes from your mouths will be all that tears you apart!” He walked away and stayed within ears range as the day passed, going back to the den in the evening and grabbing a small kit from the window he stole away again. The little fox cried as Loki chuckled. “I will return you to your parents when they know they did something bad. For now, look here.” He sat the little fox down and watched as the young kit bounced around the magic he’d created in what would be a child’s paradise. He returned to the vixen the next day, seeing the father gone and cursed her as she searched for her missing child, after she denied stealing and lied to him again. “You will speak no words until the truth comes from your lips.” He growled before leaving again.

The tod returned in the evening, his mate unable to explain what had happened to their missing kit. He was enraged by her silence and refusal to speak as she stayed silent. Loki returned that night, stealing another kit and returning to the magical place he’d created again, smiling as the two young foxes giggled while they played in the magic. He returned again in the morning, telling the vixen to be truthful and admit they’d taken it and lied. Her mate was gone again hunting as she shook her head, denying again they’d done any wrong. Loki left, listening to the tod screaming again that night as she stayed silent. He gave her another chance the next day… and still, she refused to tell the truth. As the evening fell, Loki came in and took the last child they had. The next day when her mate arrived home, he accused her of eating the children, he bound her to a pike and filled the area with wood as he held up a torch. The vixen saw the face of a fox in the flames as it asked her once again to be truthful. She cried out that she had lied, and the tod dropped the torch as Loki sprang from the flames in front of them. They each cried out again as a gold band appeared on their fingers, and Loki let his red eyes glow as his nine tails waved behind him, revealing his true form. “You are bound to your words as much as you are bound to each other. See what lying and stealing truly costs! Return what you have taken, say that you will never lie or steal again, teach it to all others and I will return your children!”

Both foxes agreed and Loki returned their children, raising his head as the tod fell to his knees with his mate as they ran to their parents arms. He held out the little pouch as Loki looked down at him and raised his head as he took it from the other fox’s paw. “This, family, is the most important thing. She cannot protect them if you do not protect her. If you cannot trust each other and do not talk, it will fall apart. A lie will come back and tear everything you have built together apart. You may be tricky with your words, but never take something without giving something back. Do not lie, do not steal. Teach them better, for your word is all you have that matters and all that others can truly judge you by. You will die with honor, only if you have lived an honorable life.” The tod wrapped around his mate and children nodding as Loki left. The kits excitedly told them of the magic they’d played in while their parent’s pet and preened them….

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Loki made his way to Gosforth, watching the little town as the sun came over the mountains and frowned at the state the foxes were in as his ears perked. Heimdall sat beside him sighing as he looked around. “I did all I could, Brother. They would not listen to all I had to say. It was difficult for me just to get them this far. They are in need of someone…like you. The mammals of this world fear things they cannot see, believe in things that do not exist. Foxes do not. They believe what they can see because they live in the darkness others fear. Perhaps you can put out the fire that seems to be tearing them apart and brighten things with another. Maybe some of your magic can change their minds and free them from these dark ages?” Loki nodded as Heimdall handed him a parcel. They shared a meal together and the fox looked down shaking his head, before Heimdall caught his attention again. “They value so little of each other.”

Loki smirked as he picked up a stone and looked it over. “Hearts of stone can be changed to clay with the right amount of heat, Brother. I see hope in this world when none lies in the one we hail from.”

The hare laughed as Loki looked at him grinning. “I thought that was the other way around.”

The fox shrugged as he looked around. “It seems everything here is backwards from Asgard.” He looked back to the hare as his long ears tipped forward and raised a brow. “Something has caught your attention, Brother?” Heimdall nodded absently as he turned. “I believe I can handle this alone. Go find what vexes you Heimdall. I know what it is like to have a voice in your ears that rings constantly.” The hare cupped his shoulder smiling before he ran off as Loki stuck his paws in the ground again. The earth lit up as the fire lifted a large chunk of ore and he used his fire to burn away what was unneeded as his paws shaped a large pot. He looked it over satisfied as he tossed the small stone inside. Looking around he saw several trees and cut away a few sections of bark he placed in the pot, smirking before he shifted back to an old witch who started pulling the pot behind her as she made her way into the little town.

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Heimdall ran across the world, searching for a voice he heard crying out for help and praying to him as he reached a village and looked around. The wolves there went about their business, giving him a curious glance as he walked around. “Hare…why do you come to our village?”

Heimdall lifted a brow as he looked around. “I heard someone crying for help. He said he was a wolf, that he wished to save his princess.”

They all looked at each other cringing before they glanced back to the mountain shaking their heads. “Popocatepetl went searching for Iztaccihuatl on the smoking mountain beyond the blue horizon. When her father thought him dead in the war he went to fight, he betrothed her to another, and she went seeking him. You have good ears if you can hear him, Hare. It is many days' journey from here. You will never reach them soon enough.”

“I will still try.” Heimdall dipped his head as he left the village and ran up the mountain. His eyes dropped as he found both wolves, and he sighed as he took a seat in the snowy rocks. “I know you are here, Grace.” He looked up and found a raven smirking before it flew in front of him, and took a seat after becoming a darkened swirl of air that turned to an aged old vixen. “He could not save her. I was too late to save either of them.”

Grace sighed as she looked to the two wolves and shook her head. “Love grows in the strangest of places, Heimdall. But it never dies. Perhaps you should let the world know…that even as life dies. Love remains?”

Heimdall smirked as he tipped his ears up. “You wish me to give them…a Sign?” the old vixen laughed as she tipped her head, and the hare smiled as she changed back to a raven and flew away. “Give them a sign…..”

Heimdall waited until night fell. He opened the burning bridge and stepped onto one, taking his own size before gently setting foot on the world again. His large paws curled into the earth and pulled it forward and up over Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl as he built two mountains. He capped them both with snow before he stepped back on the bridge, shrinking to a normal sized hare again. He listened as the villagers below woke, seeing the fading rainbow and two new mountains that now sat in front of what was known as the blue horizon. The hare smiled as they named them the three horizons, saying it was a sign from the gods that love would always live and Heimdall had given them three horizons, where once only one had been. He returned to the black forest tipping his head as Loki smiled and leaned into the cane he was using in the frail disguise he’d taken. “Do not say it, Brother. I hate this form, but they would not have trusted me in my own.”

Heimdall dipped his head in agreement as he folded his paws behind his back and raised his ears. The red fox smiled as he shook his head. “How did it go?” he asked as he started walking with Loki.

“Only one approached me…at first. He was the sickest of all in the town. Living in a broken-down little shack. He gave me the wood to start the fire. Why is it- it seems in this world that those who have so little are more willing to share than those who have much more? It was only when a young vixen from a family more well off than others approached and gave me carrots to add to the pot that they all came together.”

Heimdall shrugged as he looked back at the town and shook his head. “Do you think what you taught them will work?”

Loki shifted as he tossed the cane away and tipped his head as he looked back at the town. “Hmm, they were not happy that I shared with others. I told them I would return in a year’s time. We shall see.”

“Then let us return home, Brother.”

The fox stopped cold as Heimdall let his ears fall. “I do not wish to return to Asgard, Heimdall.”

Heimdall nodded and smiled as he pointed back the direction they’d come from. “Then I am sure there are some rabbits and wolves who would tolerate our company still?”

The fox laughed as he wrapped an arm over the hare and walked back towards the home of Nason and Ezra. Heimdall stopped, swiveling his ears and looked back to his brother smirking. “You should start a fire, Loki. I think we should stay here for a while.” Loki furrowed his brow as the hare dipped his head in a sneaky fashion and took a seat, smiling as he set a small fire between them.

“What have your ears caught this time, Heimdall?”

The hare lifted a brow as he gazed at the fire. “Something that wished to catch you and I. Something I think you will enjoy catching, and teaching.”

Loki grinned as his ears perked, when the sound of rustling caused Heimdall to let his ears fall as he dropped his head, hiding his smile. The fox lifted his head as they were surrounded by other foxes, and smirked as they all brandished weapons. Heimdall looked around and lifted a brow as several of them growled. “I thought you dead. It is a shame I was mistaken.” He shot as Loki lifted a brow. “Our brother drowned in the river, his belly was filled with rocks, another is missing with our mother. You stole our prize and we will have one back!” An angry Tod growled as Loki lifted a brow looking at Heimdall.

The hare shrugged as he smiled. “The one who drowned did so for being gluttonous. He swallowed a doe whole. I pulled her from his belly unharmed. You ran when I captured your brother and your mother. I thought the poison from the dragon had taken hold of you, but it seems it was merely cowardice.” The tod’s around them growled as Loki dipped his head, keeping himself fairly hidden under his cloak.

“YOU! You will not think us cowards when we cut your guts open for the birds to feed on!”

The fox sitting across from the hare lifted his head and looked around as he tipped a brow. “Birds? You wish birds to eat him and not you? You had no problems wanting to eat the bunnies you had caught. Why is he different?”

The tod narrowed his eyes as he tried to look under the hood the other fox was wearing. “His white fur is worth more than his body. Why do you hide? You travel with a rabbit, a fox against every natural instinct built into him by the gods.”

Loki let his smirk show through as he tilted his head. “You believe a fox should kill a rabbit? That the gods think it is acceptable? Just because you can kill that which is weaker and smaller? And yet you ran, you left your brother and your mother to the mercy of the one that saved you by killing the dragon? I think you kill because it is easy. You are lazy and weak and will not work for what you need, taking advantage of those distracted by caring for others.”

“Lazy and weak?!” The fox jumped forward with his blade snarling, and Loki held a paw up as Heimdall started to stand. The hare ticked his eyes around, watching as Loki stood in front of the snarling fox pointing a blade at him.

“If it is so easy to kill, if you kill to get what you want. I stand with no paw that will raise a weapon.” Loki smirked as he held up a small pouch and jingled it, letting him know he had coins. The fox lunged and Loki stood taller as the other tod blinked, clutching the hilt of the blade that had gone through his shoulder. “No fox will prey on others, lie, steal, or cheat. No fox will kill. You cannot give back a life once it is taken, we do not take what we cannot repay!”

The tod in front of him screamed and withdrew his paw as the blade in Loki’s shoulder melted. He and his brothers watched in horror as the molten materials fell to the ground. They tried to run screaming as a ring of flames encircled them and Heimdall tipped his ears, grinning. The hare sat still and watched as they all fell to their knees, while Loki’s eyes shifted to a bright yellow and his fur turned black as he grew large enough to hover over them snarling. “I told you! I told you there was a fox bigger than a wolf!”

“What manner of beast changes like this! What power in the natural world would allow one to grow with eyes that glow like the sun!” Another tod asked as he held his paws over his face.

Loki’s front paws landed on each side of them, thumping into the ground as he dipped his head in an angry grimace and spoke in a deep gruff voice. “My power comes from the moon. I grow as it grows. The moon is full this night.” He snarled as they all scrambled away on the ground. “Perhaps I should turn you into that which looms over you, to that which you fear? Perhaps I should just eat you. Maybe that would take the power you think you hold?”

“NO!”

Loki raised a brow as Heimdall sat up tipping his head. The fox looked down and caught one of them standing as he stepped forward and Loki narrowed his eyes as the hood dropped. “A vixen? Dressed as a tod?” Heimdall shook his head as Loki frowned.

Loki let his lips vibrate as the vixen reached to her waist and pulled a pouch. She held it out dropping to one knee with it in both paws as the giant black fox in front of her looked down curiously. “I will give you all the silver I have to save them!”

“You think I desire such things?” Loki asked with a disgusted face.

“Please! The moon is a gentle creature that sheds light in the darkness. Surely one who gains his powers from it has a gentle heart!” She asked as she bowed her head.

Heimdall bit his lip, smirking, and turned the other way as Loki blinked and took a seat, looking down at her as his front paws stayed on the ground with his tail swaying behind him. Loki sighed as he looked her over. “You wear the rags of a thief, and yet the others wear fine clothing. You have silver and yet they steal. Why are you not in the same fashion as they are?”

The vixen turned her eyes as she looked to the tod’s. “I clean the chimneys and the homes of those who live wealthier. I save what I have earned and stay with the tods at night. They are all I have in the world. My clothing does not matter when I wish to look like something else.”

Loki dipped his head lower, growling as the tod’s cringed. “They are your family?”

“No,” she answered as she let her eyes hit the ground. “My mother died when I was born. My father remarried and his new bride and daughters did not like me. He passed away suddenly a few summers ago. I have nowhere else to go. I have been cleaning since I was very little.”

Heimdall cringed as Loki let his bright eyes fade to a pale yellow. The fox nodded as he took the bag of silver and held it up. “How long has it taken you to save this, you are still very young.”

“Seven years.” She answered as Loki looked back to the tod’s and curled his lip.

“You work in the cinders and they care for you as you save what you have earned? I will let them live for this, for you. For seven years they will spread the word of how a true fox should be. They will be the omens that warn of pending danger, and the hope that it can be changed. They will roam these lands as the ravens who advise those on a wrong path and teach the ways of a true fox. If in seven years’ time you have been able to keep the secret of what they truly are, they will return to you. Light a fire. If you have remained silent for those seven years, as soon as their feet hit the flames they shall return to the ten brothers you have chosen them to be, only if they appreciate what they have taught and know the value of being a true fox.”

“ELLA!”

Loki narrowed his eyes as the other tod shook his head. “She works among the cinders and her name is Ella? She is a Cinderella?”

“I am not a cinder-Ella! And you are no prince! You could not be charming if it were required!” The vixen growled as Loki chuckled.

He dipped his head lower and she turned her eyes as he smiled. “My what big ears you have.”

“All the better to hear you with.” Loki chuckled as she looked back at him and the vixen cringed as he licked his teeth.

”What big eyes you have.”

“All the better to see you with.” Loki licked his mouth as he dipped lower, remembering what Heimdall had said about the bunny who spoke of the fox's teeth after she was swallowed whole.

“WAIT!” Heimdall and Loki turned their heads back to the tod’s as another stood. “You cannot trust this beast! Who will keep you safe while we are gone?”

Loki scowled as he tilted his head. “You are concerned for her safety, yet you drag her to the danger?” Loki leaned forward as Heimdall’s ears set. The giant fox narrowed his eyes as the tod’s ears tipped back. “You do not wish to be thought of as a brother, do you? Twelve brothers in all, ten in this gathering- one lives as a frog now, one who wishes for something - more.” The vixen’s eyes widened as his ears pinned to his head and Loki nodded as he sat back chuckling. The fox waved a paw at the vixen and she yelped as she fell to the ground, looking at her feet. “They will never break.”

She gaped at the silver slippers as Loki pointed to Heimdall. “If you wish for her and she wishes of you, this will remain. You shall keep to seven years. They are made from the silver coins she offered. One slipper will be hidden in these lands. Seek it out, it will fit no other vixen and will never break. If you return with it to her, in seven years, with a heart of gold where stone once laid, she will be yours if she chooses it - and only if she chooses it. Prove you are worthy of her in a new life, as you have not in this life. A mate will protect the one he loves as she has done for you. When the slippers are reunited, they shall fetch a price suitable for you to make her a Den worthy of how you see her.”

“How does he see me?” The vixen asked as she stood, looking at her feet. Heimdall laughed as Loki picked up a paw and tapped the tod’s head with a giant claw. The vixen lifted her arms and spun until she was looking at the glowing dress she wore as her eyes glazed over.

“This is how he sees you.” Loki chuckled as the vixen shook her head.

She turned again, looking over herself before her eyes locked with the tod whose head was hanging. “I will wait for you.”

The tod shook his head as he stepped closer. “There will be no one to keep you safe, Ella.”

Loki chuckled as he pointed to a far-off range. “She will be safe. In seven years’ time, on the night of a full moon, when you have found the slipper and the foxes know the ways you have taught, go to that mountain. There you will find a tower no one can climb. Fly to it as she lights the fire. Rap upon the wall three times and her tail will grow long enough for you to repel from the tower. In the time she spends there I shall leave her a sword. The sword will sing and teach her how to fight. When you are returned, she will teach you, and you all will teach others. A small sack of silver was not what saved you. It was a heart of gold.”

The tod nodded as Loki waved a paw and the vixen watched as they all turned to ravens, flying away in every direction. “Ella.” She turned as Heimdall removed his robe and threw it over her. “It is chili and you are cold. Take this to stay warm.” He leaned down and pulled a slipper from her foot before she removed the other and placed it in a pocket sewn to the side.

The vixen looked herself over and turned back to the huge fox, tipping a brow as he smirked. “How will I pay for the dress? The hood?”

Heimdall snickered as she turned to him and tipped his head. “I’ll take your first child as payment.”

The vixen’s eyes widened as Loki shook his head. “Heimdall! Do not tease when she has offered and given so much, or I will rumple your skin until you are still enough to remove it!”

The hare laughed as he twirled the slipper around and looked to the sky as he smirked. “What would you call me then brother? Rumpelstiltskin?”

The vixen blinked as Heimdall stepped closer. “Repay this by naming the first vixen in your family, merry on that day. Keep the name as the first to each one born in your family’s generations.”

“Name her merry on that day… Marry? Marry on that day? Marion?”

Loki chuckled as Heimdall lifted a brow. It wasn’t what Heimdall meant but he bowed to her smiling in agreement. Loki shook his head and lowered as Heimdall doused the flames in ice and stood in front of the fox, holding a shining silver slipper as he knelt in front of her. “Climb upon my back. My brother will hide the slipper. I will take you to the mountains and make a tower to keep you safe. You will want for nothing while it stands. A single rose will be inside. Eat one petal each day. It will provide all you need and the tower will teach you while you wait, but all within it will crumble when your feet hit the ground again."

"Loki, you wish to leave her locked alone in a tower? You of all should know it is not good to stay in a single place and not be able to move about the world."

Loki watched Heimdall cringe and looked off in thought nodding. "I will leave a mirror you can look into, it will keep you company and teach you anything you wish to know, a wealth of knowledge like no other has ever known. It will show you anything and anyone you wish to see. You may leave the tower on one night each month when the moon is full. At the window you will change under its light and become a swan so you can stretch your wings in the world. You must go no further from the tower than the lake and return to the tower when the reflection of the moon leaves the water. If you do not return you will stay a swan for all your days, for all the knowledge you have gained from the mirror and the singing sword that is meant to be taught to the other foxes will be an owed debt you cannot repay. Keep your word to repay what I have given. Tell the foxes the stories you learn while you are there. Tell them of truth.” She nodded and Loki tipped forward letting her climb onto his back. Heimdall took off laughing as Loki chased after him.

Word spread through the black forest about a hound from hell who chased an angel of death. That a beauty in a red hood rode the back of a beast. An old witch trapped a maiden in a tower, ravens talked in the shadows, and unseen forces were moving through the world. All while another raven sat watching. Its head tipped to one side in a sly smirk that _Graced_ its beak before it flew back into the darkness it had come from. Loki and Heimdall left the vixen waving from a tower, laughing as they recalled the shock she had when he revealed his true form and told her they were gods…..

**Notes; The ten and twelve brothers and ravens refer to several different Brothers Grimm stories.**

**Time is also a raven, and death. It is a reference to Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven poem. Grace is Mother and Father Time, (Growing old with Grace) Time is also Darkness, Death and Fate.**

**Honestly, I do not remember the name of the story I used for the gold rings and Loki taking the children of the ones who lied and stole from him. In my story, he created the tradition of wedding rings. The fable of the ten and twelve brothers was based on Mary taking a young girl to heaven in one of the Brothers Grimm stories. She unlocked twelve doors with a key that led to her silence after she lied about opening a door she was not supposed to open. (Similar to Pandora’s box which also comes up in the story) Religion is not my cup of tea due to how it is often twisted to fit someone’s views and can be easily corrupted, but I liked how the little story came to fit this tale, seeing as how Loki and Heimdall are the key.**

**Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl is another fable I used in the story in Think like a fox, and how Heimdall became known as the God of Three Horizons.**

**I don't believe Disney ever did The Swan Princess as a feature, but its in here. "an owed debt that cannot be repaid- Odette. A wealth of knowledge like no other- The name Odette means wealth. She changed to a swan each time the moon left the water.**

**Others mentioned-**

**Cinderella**

**Beauty and the Beast**

**“ _Rap upon_ the wall three times and her tail will grow long enough for you to _repel_ from the tower.” =** **Rapunzel**

**Heimdall teases the vixen Ella about taking her first child as payment for his robe and the dress Loki made. Loki says to stop or I will rumple your skin until you are still enough to remove it- Rumpelstiltskin.**

**The rose Loki leaves with her in the tower to eat a petal from each day, and her riding on his back is a nod to Beauty and the Beast.**


	16. The Black Forest; Jack And The Bean Stalk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And a few others-

**The Black Forest – Jack And The Bean Stalk**

**Natasha Bedingfield; Unwritten**

The fox and hare traveled again, slowing their journey as they cherished the countryside and world that had grown as they walked back towards the woods.

Between the path that laid on each side of the black forest and the mountains where they’d left a vixen waiting for her true love in a tower, Heimdall and Loki stopped on the road where they met a young bunny sitting with a horse. The horse was rubbing his feet and hissing as the little rabbit looked them over. Heimdall stepped closer watching the little bunny jump behind the large stallion as he tensed and curled his lip at the two strangers.

The fox lifted a brow, smirking as Heimdall looked back to the horse shaking his head. “Why does a horse travel with a wee bunny?” he asked as the horse narrowed his eyes.

The stallion shook his head, sending his dark mane fluttering around as Heimdall watched the young bunny peeking from behind him. “For the same reason a hare travels with a fox. Does he not keep others larger from harming you? Why would one travel with another who was born to take life?” The fox narrowed his eyes as Heimdall stood up grinning.

“One only takes life if it is necessary to protect others, even then it is not a welcome prospect. Why do you think this way?” Loki growled.

“Necessity breeds intelligence, fox.” The horse stated as he continued to rub his feet hooves.

“Why have you stalled on your journey?” Heimdall asked, watching the little bunny peek around the horse again.

She looked at the fox with her nose twitching. “We travel to sell our straw, but we lost our wheel and he cannot carry more weight than I on his back with the splinters that have lodged in his hoofs.” The small bunny said slowly, still peeking from behind the horse.

Loki watched the little bunny jump from behind the horse and start digging little rocks and splinters from his hoof as he sat back grinding his teeth. Heimdall stood up next to Loki, cupping a paw under his jaw as the hare shook his head. “Leave it, Jack. It will be the death of me.” The bunny turned sobbing as Loki and Heimdall glanced at each other narrowing their eyes.

Heimdall stepped closer looking over the horse as the bunny beside him leaned into his side. “A splinter will be the death of you?” The stallion curled his lip and turned his paw over, shaking his head when Heimdall stepped closer looking over his hooves. The hare tipped a brow and frowned at their state. Worn, chipped and broken as dirt and small stones lodged into the sections that had broken away. “What causes such wear on the feet of one so great in these lands?”

Loki watched the horse curl an arm around the little bunny as he looked back at Heimdall in a deadpan. “What one does not work is useless and the lands I tend yield little.”

The fox smirked as the little bunny snuck around the horse, examining the horn on Heimdall’s belt. The hare looked down narrowing his eyes when it tilted and he felt the weight shift. “A lad should not be so bold as to steal in open light.”

The horse shot forward grabbing the bunny and neighed as he shook his head. “SHE IS NO THIEF AND CURIOSITY SHOULD NOT BE ASSUMED TO MAKE ONE SUCH AS A THIEF!”

“She?” Loki asked with a smirk as Heimdall lifted a brow.

The stallion sighed as the bunny in his arms looked up at him and wiggled out of his arms before reaching into a sack sitting at his back. She pulled out a pie handing it to the hare as he curled his brow. “I did not mean to steal. I was only curious. I have never seen a horn made of bones that also had gold around it like a ring. It is very pretty.”

Loki smiled as he looked between a gaping Heimdall and the horse who stuck his paw over his face shaking his head. “This is the second time I have seen this. Why do you tell others she is a boy? Hide her like she is a lad and not a lass?” Loki asked as he tipped up on his heels.

The horse glared as he ticked his eyes between them. “A young rabbit maid that travels with a horse is not as easy to protect as a lad. Jackelyn, come sit with me. Away yourself from those we do not know well.” Loki smiled wider as the little doe jumped back to sit with the horse, while Heimdall stuck a finger in the pie and raised a brow as he pulled out a plumb. The fox laughed as Heimdall tipped his ears and looked back to them curiously. “It is a plumb pie. She makes them to offer to those when she feels badly or believes she insulted them.”

Loki smiled as he took a seat and nodded at Heimdall as he tucked the pie under his shirt and into a small pouch. The doe twisted her head as she looked up, and slipped away, gathering sticks she sat in front of them as she set about making a fire. The fox snickered as she sighed when she was unable to get the kindling lit after she’d filled a pot with water from the broken wagon. “Why do you try to build a fire? It is still warm this night.” Loki asked as he looked back and found the horse watching him. Heimdall tipped his ears as the little bunny looked back to the horse and watched him nodding at her, letting her know it was alright to explain what she was doing before she spoke.

“You are of another kind. You cannot eat the pies I make. We have no meat, but we have beans that hold the same thing your kind need to eat.”

The fox ticked his eyes between them as the horse kept a guard up, watching the young bunny. “An obedient child. She asks your permission to speak or give gifts when she feels she has wronged another?” Loki tipped his ears as the horse folded his arms over his chest and flicked his ears several times.

Heimdall narrowed his eyes as the bunny stayed close to the horse and looked at him with raised brows. “Why does she travel with you? Where is her family?”

The stallion frowned as he looked between them and pulled her closer as Loki smirked. “I am her family. There are no others and it matters not how she came to be with me.”

Heimdall narrowed his eyes as Loki looked to the kindling and watched as the horse and bunny jumped when he waved a paw and lit a fire. “You are magic!” The doe squealed and Loki laughed as the horse shook his head trying to keep her from jumping forward.

She looked back to the horse as he hesitantly leaned forward, motioning for the doe to cook her beans, and watched as she sat them on the flames. Loki kept a sneaky smirk as the horse ticked his eyes back and forth between them, and leaned forward as Heimdall shook his head. “You fear us, and yet you still guard the young one, allow her to feed us?”

The horse looked at the bunny and sighed as she gazed up at him. “It is unwise to upset those who hold power you will never have. It is wiser to offer a token, instead of offence.” The horse reached into his pocket pulling out four silver coins, and leaned over as the bunny blinked. “Here. It is not a great deal to offer, but if it pleases you and we are allowed to go on our way without trouble, it will be a good trade.”

Heimdall lifted a brow as the horse held out the coins and the bunny shook her head as she pulled at his long mane. “We cannot give them all we have, we must use it to fix the wagon and your hooves!” Loki smiled as the doe kept her voice low, watching as Heimdall’s ears set straight. He took the coins from the horse and Heimdall blinked as the bunny jumped from his arms. “We will both die and starve if he cannot work the land! There must be something we can do to change this fate!”

Loki laughed as he shook his head. “Ask that one, he can tell you of your fate, if you can accomplish a simple feat.” Heimdall lowered his brow as Loki smirked.

“What feat?” She asked as the horse dipped his ears back. Loki snickered as he took a single stick from the fire, sitting it in the ground. “Jump over it without killing the flame and he will tell you of your fortune.” Heimdall glared at him with an incredulous tint as Loki chuckled.

The doe looked back to the horse biting her lip as he sighed and nodded. “You are a good jumper Jack. I am sure you will accomplish the feat.”

Heimdall shook his head as the doe jumped over the flame and squealed as she rushed to the hare. “You hold magic too? You can tell me of the future!?”

Loki bit his lip as Heimdall blinked and smiled as he nodded. He narrowed his eyes on the fox as he took her paws and the red fox lifted a brow curiously when Heimdall shot him a sinister smirk. “The coins your guardian offered will protect his feet for the entirety of his lifetime. The beans you offered the fox will take you to a place where you will find a great fortune, and the wheel of the broken wagon will spin, and create a future that will be enough that the lands you work will always bring forward a good harvest.”

Loki smirked as he tilted his head and looked to the coins before he stood up and nodded. The coins in his paws melted in his fire, and the horse jumped from the ground as the molten material swirled around all four of his hooves, becoming shoes held in place with nails as they pulled all the rocks and splinters from his feet.

Loki and Heimdall looked up at a large raven that flew over and perched in a tree. The horse grabbed rocks he started throwing as the little bunny pulled out a sling shot and started shooting at it. The bird flew away cawing and the horse looked back to find the fox and the hare scowling at him. “You act as if you do not know the bird will steal my crops! They devour more than half of what I plant each season.”

Loki sighed as he cast a paw and sent the wheel of the wagon spinning. The bunny cupped her paws over her mouth, giggling as the wheel from the wagon was lifted into the air and repaired, before it reattached to the wagon. She watched in awe as the horse stood and stepped beside her. Each time the wheel turned it spat seeds that flew into the ground. The horse raised his brows as each seed that fell to the Earth sprang into a field of golden grains, where once only poor land had been. The horse and doe turned back at the fox and hare as Loki picked up several beans from the pot that still sat cooking over the fire.

“Each bean will give you what you need to find your way.” He held them down smirking as the doe looked them over, before turning to the horse as he nodded. She took them from his paws and Heimdall chuckled as Loki looked back at him grinning. “Plant them and see where they lead you, Jack.” Loki said as he kept a mirrored smile on the hare. Heimdall narrowed his eyes as Loki stood, after she’d taken them. The hare watched as she planted one in the field they were resting beside. The horse frowned as vines grew large enough to be trunks of trees as they twisted around each other and she looked up wide eyed as they spread though the sky as if creating a new land above the clouds. “Because the hare thought this the way to help those who helped us, he will wait for you there. You are the only one who can climb the beanstalk, little Jack. At the top you will find a giant at the end of a rainbow. He will give you three eggs that will always keep you and the one who cares for you safe.”

The bunny looked back to the hare and raised her brows as Heimdall lowered his eyes on the fox. “How will he be there, if he is here? How will I climb the vines that are bigger than a tree?!” she asked as the horse shook his head in protest.

“She will fall to her death!” the horse shot as Loki pointed to the other beans.

“Plant them and see what grows.” The doe waited until the horse nodded before she set the other beans in the dirt and stepped back as they sprouted, tilting her head as each plant opened. The first had become the stalk that grew, another became a small green outfit that fit her perfectly, as another shifted to a four-leaf clover she plucked and held up examining curiously.

Heimdall ran a paw down his face chuckling. Loki smirked at the horse after the little bunny furrowed her brow. “Keep it inside your shirt as you climb. Be nimble and quick as you jump from branch to branch and it will keep you safe from the elements as you move. The Earth beneath your feet will stay at bay, the rain that falls will never touch your skin and the wind will keep you dry. Treat each branch as if it is fire while you jump and it will keep you warm as you move.”

Loki smirked as the horse gaped. “Even if she is safe climbing a giant will wait for her?! How will she survive that?!”

Loki chuckled as he waved a paw at Heimdall and the hare shook his head as he became a goose. Heimdall honked several times giving Loki a dirty look as the fox snickered. “He will fly to the top, open a rainbow and wait for you there. Sing for him and he will change back after he has given you the three eggs.” The goose narrowed its eyes on the fox as he retook a seat and lowered his voice as the goose leaned close to his face, scowling. “This was your idea, Brother. You should have thought about telling them the truth instead of leaving it to me.” The horse and rabbit hesitantly sat again as they watched the fox talking to the goose that had once been a hare. They sat eating as Heimdall kept his eyes narrowed on the fox. Loki shrugged as he smiled wider. “You wished it, Brother.” Heimdall looked back to the beanstalk and sighed before he took to flight, with the young doe watching as he landed on the vines that had formed a floor in the sky. The horse huffed a breath as he looked to the vines and let his head fall as the bunny removed the pot from the fire letting it cool. She cleaned it out before she slipped into the clothes and Loki picked it up handing it to her as the horse lifted a brow. “Take it with you. Do not forget to sing to the goose. He will give you three golden eggs and you can use the pot to carry them back.”

The bunny tilted her head as she looked it over and tied it to her back as the horse cringed. “The giant will not eat her?” he asked as the little bunny stepped closer to the vines.

Loki chuckled as they looked back at him and shook his head. “No. All gods are giants. When you sing, he will return to the shape of a hare and the goose disappearing will lay the eggs you can carry in the pot. He will open the bridge and show you his true form, if you ask him, little Jack.” The horse looked I over dan Loki smirked as he shook his head. Mumbling something about gods.

The little bunny took off up the vines giggling, and Loki sat with the horse for three days, smiling as they watched a rainbow appear over the vines. It stretched over the lands and into the sky as the fox rested under the tree. The horse jumped as the little bunny hit the ground again. Laughing as she looked at three golden eggs. Loki tipped his ears chuckling as Heimdall stepped off the fading bridge. The horse lifted his head as she held out the pot filled with three gold eggs, and returned his attention to the fox and hare who stood up playfully glaring at each other. “What are we to do with these?”

Heimdall tipped a brow at Loki as he motioned to them grinning. The hare rolled his eyes as he looked over the fields and nodded. “Jack will open the first, and from it she will be able keep the frost from all your fields. The second she opens can be placed within a pumpkin that has been carved with a face. It will light the darkness and keep all who wish to harm either of you at bay as it guards your door and any path you may carry it through. It will also scare away the birds that will harm your crops. The third egg will be opened, and from it you will gain strength in your feet. They will spring each time you jump, and you will stay lean from the movements, little Jack. The horse that carries you will be the one who keeps his girth and will draw his strength from the same grains and vegetables you both eat, but will grow stronger to help keep you safe.”

The doe looked back at the horse smiling as he sighed. “Magic is not a good way to gain things in this world, Jackelyn.”

Loki snickered as Heimdall tipped his head. “Explain why you think this, horse? What is your name?”

“Gabriel. I think that because no one should expect something from nothing. “Your magic, it must come from somewhere. If you did not work for it where does it come from, no energy is put into it and how can it be a good thing if that is the case?”

Heimdall bit the side of his cheek hiding his smile as the fox’s face lit up. “True, Gabriel. Hard work will lead you to all you desire, but this takes time and energy, the energy and time you put into something is what will make things grow. What grows will be everything that matters to you. The more you care for these things, the more they will give you in return.” Loki held up his paws and let them glow lightly before they burst into flames. The fox snickered as Heimdall shoved him and shook his head.

The stallion cringed nervously as Loki and Heimdall both tipped their ears up waiting, both grinning as the bunny tugged on his mane. Heimdall nodded, “Magic will only serve you if you serve it. Work is the way to happiness. Because you see things this way and teach it to one you have taken as your charge, that is what you will benefit from. All the days you work will return you to the same happiness you offered. The magic is from the work. The wheel on the wagon will not turn if you do not pull the cart to grow the seeds in the fields on four feet, using the shoes made of silver that will protect your feet from harm. Jack cannot open the eggs if they are not kept warm by the wood and fires you will build. Nothing will grow if the fields are not tended to. This strength is what your species will be known for and you will be seen as one of the most beautiful for it.” The horse let his jaw fall as his fur glistened in a high sheen and his mane grew longer as the hair on his tail grew to the length that drug the ground behind him.

The fox and hare chuckled as the little bunny jumped on his shoulder and giggled as she braided the strands of his long mane. Loki tipped his head as she tried to find a way to keep them from unraveling after she’d twisted them into several strands. The fox sighed and Heimdall tipped his ears and grabbed Loki’s arm in protest as he removed the ring from his finger. “Loki, you cannot give that away! Not when it was what-

The fox closed his eyes and smiled as Heimdall stepped back raising both brows. He handed it to the little bunny and she stuck it over the end of the stallion's braided hair, her eyes lighting up as it shrank around the bottom of the braid. “Some connections never fade Heimdall, and a trinket is only a symbol of what is.” The hare smiled as the horse looked it over and back to the beanstalk.

“What will become of the stalk? Surely you cannot leave it for others to climb? If there is nothing there now, they will go seeking and fall over the edge to their deaths.”

The hare smirked as Loki blinked and looked up nodding, a smile slowly spreading over his face. “Heimdall?”

Heimdall ticked his eyes up, shaking his head. “Why do you keep putting me in the position to guide your actions?” He frowned as Loki smirked and shrugged as he rubbed his brow. “Fine, if you wish to take it down, either give me an ax to cut it or shrink it back to something that will warn others they are close to the black forest.”

Loki nodded as he held his paws up. The horse and little bunny still sitting on his shoulder gaped as the vines shrank, awed when it became a juniper tree that sat not far from the trail that led back into the black forest. They all said their goodbyes happily, and left to continue on their journey as rain began to fall. Loki huffed as he tried to flip his ears back. “We need to get out of the rain.”

Heimdall chuckled and threw his arms out. “Let the rain wash away your troubles, Loki! There is always a rainbow after the rain. Do you not know we are writing history in this world?! It is an open book with blank pages! Lower the flames and feel the rain on your skin! Only you can let it in!”

Loki chuckled and shook his head, looking into the sky as thunder rolled. He held his arms out laughing after Heimdall nudged him, grinning as the fox smiled and tipped his head back to the path as he lowered the flame of his fur and ignored the rain, letting it soak through to his skin. The hare chuckled as the sun peeked through the clouds, shining on both of them as they continued their journey….

**Notes; Stories used from the brothers Grimm may not all be listed, and a few other fairy tales popped up. Some were brought to life through Loki, while others came from Heimdall or both of them working together.**

**A reference as to why horseshoes and four-leaf clovers are considered lucky. The pot at the end of a rainbow and finding gold. Little Jack takes the pot up the beanstalk to help her return with the golden eggs Heimdall gives her. Heimdall is connected with eggs because of his nose and how the tree of life took them and made them part of itself. The golden goose who laid golden eggs. The raven in the tree is a shout out to the nursery rhyme a carrion crow.**

**The green clothes Jackelyn is wearing and finding a giant at the top are references to a leprechaun and Jack and the beanstalk. There is a reference to Jack Horner as (her/his) curiosity led her to Heimdall’s horn and she offered a plumb pie as an apology that he sticks his thumb in. Jack and the beanstalk- the horse is a reference to the cow he was meant to sell. Jack be nimble Jack be quick. Jumping over a candlestick was an old game of fortune telling in past times. The wagon the hay is still sitting in and the wheel that was repaired and turning seeds into the field that became golden grains is a reference to Rumpelstiltskin and spinning straw to gold. Jackelyn singing to change Heimdall back into a rabbit after Loki turns him into a goose is a reference to the golden harp. The things the eggs provide are references to Jack frost, jack o lanterns, Jack Sprat and scarecrows. Some of these things become connected to other holidays.**


	17. The Black Forest; Peter Cheater Pumpkin Keeper

**The Black Forest - Peter Cheater Pumpkin Keeper**

TXC; The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkin Head

Loki and Heimdall walked the path that led back to the black forest and the hare cocked his head as the fox stopped and stuck his nose in the air. He started grinning as Loki closed his eyes and sniffed, his nose pointing them to the east. “Something has caught your attention Brother?”

The fox licked around his muzzle and smacked his mouth a few times. “Something smells very…”

Heimdall chuckled as Loki closed his eyes again. “Appealing apparently? I can only imagine it is something good if your nose wishes to follow it.”

Loki looked at him and blinked a few times as Heimdall threw an arm the direction his nose kept tilting. “You wish to look into mortal foods? You did not even touch the pie little Jack gave you.”

Heimdall sighed. “You were enjoying their company. I did not wish to be rude. I have eaten a few things here and was genuinely surprised at how enjoyable it is.”

Loki chuckled and Heimdall rolled his eyes. “And what was it that you found enjoyable about the mortal foods you have refused to attempt the many times I have offered?”

The hare sighed as Loki kept grinning at him. “Something called a pot pie and a stew made of many vegetables grown by the rabbits here. Carrots were the thing I enjoyed the most, but I was told they were not good to eat constantly. They make the rabbits ill if they are over consumed.”

Loki chuckled again. “It is unlikely they will make you ill brother. Let us find this scent that keeps pulling at my nose.” The hare tipped his head as Loki led the way. They wound up at the outskirts of the black forest where Loki lifted a brow at all the children running around. Him and Heimdall glanced at each other as a vixen waved away a tod who was sneaking out the back of the cottage, telling him to hurry away after she handed him a pie, letting dozens of kits run amuck.

There were pies resting in the windows cooling and Heimdall moved to approach, halting as Loki held up a finger and shook his head. The fox and hare stayed at bay as another tod approached with a horse. The kits running around rushed to him as he laughed and bent to a knee. The tod handed out something to all the kits and Loki narrowed his eyes as the vixen greeted him at the door. Heimdall shook his head. “What is he giving them? Is he the father of all these…”

“No. They are seeds of some kind. Dried in the sun.” Loki growled as he looked around, perking his ears as he watched the same fox who’d snuck away peeking around a tree before he slid back into the forest. He curled his lips into a frown as the horse caught sight of the tod and sighed as made his way to the stables. “He raises the children of an unfaithful mate. Many from others he does not know of, but the horse does and says nothing.”

Heimdall cringed as Loki growled. “Loki, do not let your temper pass judgement when there is much at stake for the young here.”

The fox looked back at his brother turning his lip up. “I would not judge them for their mother’s wrong, Heimdall, but a lesson should be learned. No fox shall be unfaithful.”

“What is it you plan to do? It is not as if any action you could take would not alter the lives here.”

“Alter is exactly what needs to be done, Brother.” The hare sighed as Loki stepped into the open space and followed him as the kits stopped, watching them approach the door to the cottage. He knocked, smiling as a tod opened the door. “Sir, we have followed our noses to this place. Would it be possible to purchase the pies that rest in your windows?”

“Katrina?” The tod looked back into the cottage and smirked as his mate came to the door. “They wish to purchase the pies you make.”

The vixen looked at both of them as the kits outside gathered around watching. “Come in, I will let you sample them and you may barter with my husband as to their price. Most are made of pumpkin as that is what my mate grows.”

Loki tightened his lips and Heimdall kept a flat face as the tod chuckled. “Please, enter. Many come to find what she bakes, but we have never had any ask to purchase them.” The fox and hare came in and were led to a table she was placing pies on after pulling them from the windowsill. Loki closed his eyes and inhaled the scent as she sliced one of them and handed each a small plate. The tod watching smiled wider as they both hummed at the taste.

“We have traveled far.” Loki sighed as he looked at the pies. “Is there a way we can barter for these pies, trade work to purchase them?”

Heimdall lifted a brow as the tod looked off in thought and looked back at his brother curiously. Loki shook his head as the hare opened his mouth. He snapped his jaw shut as the other fox rubbed his chin.

“I do need some who could help harvest the pumpkins and scare off the crows in the next week. The pumpkins are large, it takes one strong of body and stomach to move them. Is this something you would be capable of doing?”

“Strong of stomach?” Loki asked as he watched the tod grimace.

“Yes. Not many can manage the work. Even the stallion I have hired has a difficult time with the job. If the pumpkins have sat in the fields too long or have spoiled they must still be removed. Many are large enough that not even craning the body will allow a full view, and if one cannot see their condition and they have spoiled they are….icky?”

Loki choked on his own chuckle as Heimdall raised a brow. “Icky? This is the word you use to describe what a body must crane to see? Ichabodcraning is how you define harvesting pumpkins? Why is it…Icky?”

The other tod chuckled. “My crops are grown in a large hollow. The gas emitted from the rotting pumpkins can be dangerous if one is not careful. The odor is strong, but it also causes headaches, one may become disoriented, grow impatient and sour. If one becomes tired they must leave before the gas puts them to sleep or they may never wake.”

Loki looked off in thought. “It is dangerous farming pumpkins in this…Sleepy Hollow?” He looked back at Heimdall and the buck gave him a shrug. “We are both of strong body and stomach.”

“Good!” the tod laughed as he motioned to the table. “I am Hans. Stay and have dinner this night. You may sleep in the stables until the morn and I shall be grateful for the help with this harvest!”

Loki and Heimdall ate dinner and the hare watched his brother carefully as Loki kept an eye on the vixen. The fox was trying not to growl watching her pull away from her mate and shun his attention.

After the meal the tod led them to the stable where Heimdall scowled at his brother. “What is it you plan on doing here?”

“I plan on waiting. If I am wrong, nothing will come of this. If I am right, I will use only what I have learned to teach a lesson.” The fox looked back at his brother when Heimdall sighed. “You said they were my children, what did you expect?”

Heimdall took a seat, watching out the doors as Loki kept an eye on the cottage. It was the horse who caught his attention. A black stallion who’s fur gleamed under the light of the moon. The hare narrowed his eyes as the horse lifted his head from where he was grazing and turned rolling his eyes. Loki leaned closer after Heimdall tapped his shoulder and looked out the doors. The fox frowned as the horse glared at the tod who’d come from the woods, and walked away shaking his head.

Loki’s face fell as the vixen slipped out the back door and rushed into the woods with her lover when he caught her mate watching from the cottage and dip his ears back as his eyes fell. Heimdall jumped as Loki stood up and sent a wave of heat billowing everywhere. “Brother, you will burn this place to the ground if you do not control your temper!”

Loki sucked in a breath and puffed his cheeks as he pulled everything back. He threw the doors open and walked to the cottage, standing in front of the tod who’d taken a seat on the porch and had his head hanging as it rested in his paws. “Hans, you allow your mate to….?”

The fox jumped and looked up at Loki with tears in his eyes. “I love her. It is only one transgression. She has a wandering eye that only finds comfort in his arms.”

“She shuns your affection and seeks- you allow this and say nothing? It is not one transgression and he is not the only arms she places herself in.” Loki flipped his ears back as the horse approached. “Ask him.”

“There are others?” Hans looked at the horse and the stallion cringed as he turned his head. When the vixen rushed back from the woods giggling with her lover in paw, they froze as Loki’s teeth split. Heimdall cringed as he burst into flames and stepped away when his brother growled.

“TREACHERY!” Loki growled as the vixen and tod with her backed away. Hans sat frozen as the stallion tried to move. One wave of Loki’s paw sent the two foxes to their knees as the stallion reared on its hind feet and stopped as if it were suspended. The foxes watching him couldn’t move as Heimdall approached and shook his head.

“Loki?” Heimdall asked as the fox paced back and forth between the mammals who could only move their eyes as they watched.

Loki looked back at the tod snarling as he balled his fists and shook his head. “YOU!” He pointed at Hans and the fox sucked in a breath as his limbs unlocked and cast his eyes away from his mate and the tod still clutching her paw. “You reap what you sow! None should be so gracious as to give away what is most valuable to them! You say nothing and work to feed your family, knowing it could cause your death, yet allow her to-” He turned to the horse and growled again. “And you- you have known of all of them! Yet you keep the knowledge from the one who provides you with the work that feeds you and a place to sleep!”

Heimdall curled his shoulders as Loki turned to the vixen and the tod, jarring a finger at them as his lips curled over his teeth. “Katrina- your name shall mean pure, for from this day on you shall be! You will never lie with one other than your mate!”

Heimdall stepped back with his eyes growing as Loki threw a blast of heat at the cottage and gaped as it turned to a large pumpkin he tossed the vixen into. “You will never leave this dwelling. You will watch your children and none but your mate may enter. If you allow another into your chamber, the home will rot around you and suffocate you with your own lies! You will never give away your pie or let others sample it again. You will make and sell only to help your mate raise the children he has taken as his own! You forsake all he has given and forgiven you. You will be well kept from this day or nothing will remain of you but your bones!”

Heimdall tipped a brow as Loki grabbed the tod she’d snuck off with from the ground. “What are you called?”

“B-Brom.” He stuttered as Loki growled again.

“Brom, a friend you shall be to this farmer and his crops. You will guard his livelihood and protect what you have stolen. The one who failed to speak of this will be the one you are bound to.” He tossed the fox onto the horses back and Hans threw his paws up as the fox and stallion burst into flames. Heimdall curled his lip uncomfortably as Brom grabbed his head, frantically trying to find where his face had once been. Only a pumpkin sat on his shoulders. Loki held a skull in his paw and tossed it to Hans who nearly dropped it as he gasped. He leaned away as Loki dipped towards him growling. “You allowed this by not speaking and accepted this burden. You will carry it with you until the day all these children are near nigh from this farm.” He turned back to the horse as it clawed at the ground and the fox with no head screamed after Loki waved his paw.

Heimdall’s jaw dropped as a face appeared, cut from the pumpkin that rested on the fox’s shoulders. Loki snarled, “You have lost your head, believing you could take something from another tod that cannot be replaced or repaid, allowing him to raise the many children you have had with his mate. You will remain headless until you have repaid a debt that is countless.” The horse chewed at the bit in his mouth as Loki growled again. “You would not speak of the wrongs you knew of, your tongue will be held in place until the day the headless fox has no more to guard. Until then, you will both protect and help harvest his crops and see to it no others approach his mate, lest they also lose their heads! She is his tassel and will only be tied to him. This will be the only way any can approach this Sleepy Hollow if they are bold enough to approach this small… farm of tassels. You will both stay under the bridge and listen for any who try to come here. If they do not intend on buying things from the farmer or his wife, they are not allowed to pass.” Loki threw his paws to the west and a bridge appeared before the horse reared again and took off, galloping into the long wooden bridge. They disappeared and he curled his lip as he looked back at the pumpkin. Watching all the little foxes looking out stunned as their mother buried her face in her apron.

Hans stood up shaking as Heimdall approached Loki, chewing his lip as his brother stood there still fuming. “Loki, you mean to have them live in a place that will smell like foot coverings?”

Loki sighed as he looked at his brother and waved a paw at the pumpkin cottage. The hare curled one side of his lip as three fairies appeared and shook his head. “You cannot leave them here! You know they steal children and ….” The hare raised a brow and blinked as the fairies sat on a window ledge scowling. “Where are their wings?”

“Father pulled them off because they stole mothers looking glass. Vain little creatures.”

Heimdall frowned as he watched Loki step to the window talking to them. The little monstrosities made the hare shiver as Loki stepped away chuckling. “You cannot make a deal with them about anything. They are tied to the Fates…You know the Fates are gone!” Heimdall curled his lip as Loki smirked. “What did you tell them I could give them?!”

“Their wings back, if they agreed to stay and keep the pumpkin fresh. They can keep it in a state where it will not smell unless the vixen breaks the law I have set.”

Heimdall narrowed his eyes. “I have no magic like you and mother! All I have is the ability to cool things, see and hear in the realms – Fairies have no names! I cannot see a path if I cannot identify who I search for! ….You lied?”

“I did not.” Loki sniffed as he looked away and folded his arms over his chest. “I simply told them you could tell them when they would get their wings back if they agreed to care for the pumpkin.”

“I cannot see any fairy path when they are not identifiable! You know that is part of the…. Even if I could, I cannot tell them the path of a decision they will make!” Heimdall narrowed his eyes as Loki smirked. “They already agreed, and you gave them names so I could see their path, didn’t you?”

Loki chuckled as Hans watched with his lip twitching. “Heimdall, this is Flora, she will keep the pumpkin in its current state so it does not deteriorate. This is Fauna, she will keep the pumpkin sweet and blooming so it smells nice inside. This is Merryweather, she will make sure the pumpkin is well watered and can move it if it has been in one place too long. She can make the vines grow around it and roll it to another place on this land.”

“Hmm.” Heimdall almost scoffed as he looked them over. “And what about the kits? They are notorious for stealing them.”

“They will not.” Loki smirked as the fairies glared at him. “They will be tending to the mess the kits make and keeping them company as well. If they break this agreement or cause any harm, they will never get their wings back. They will be the sweetest things in existence while they are here. What mortals see as a lifetime is but a blink of an eye for them.”

Heimdall stepped closer letting each of them grab his finger and looked into the vision before he tipped his head. “You will regain your wings in less than a thousand years’ time.” The little fairies hopped around excitedly as they chirred, until the hare bit his lip. Fairies didn’t speak, but he could see them all curling their lips at him. “Loki?” Heimdall whispered. The fox leaned lower and the fairies narrowed their eyes as the hare spoke in a quiet tone.

Loki leaned up looking at the fairies and laughed as Heimdall pulled away glaring at him. “He says you may change sooner if you stay here.”

“LOKI! I CANNOT TELL OF A POSSIBLE PATH A CHOICE THAT COULD BE MADE WILL LEAD TO!” Heimdall screamed as the fox snickered and held his paws up.

“You cannot tell them, but no one said I could not!” The hare let his jaw fall as Loki shot him a cocky tick of his head. “Heimdall says if you stay here and truly learn to care for these children, you may get your wings back long before they leave home. If you stay until they are grown, your wings will be larger and more beautiful than all the other fairies. It would be less than a thousand suns that rise here.”

“LOKI!” Heimdall gaped and cupped his paws over his mouth as the fox laughed, watching the fairies raise their brows.

“What? You did not tell them of the future, I did. So, you broke no rules!” Heimdall turned running his paws over face as Loki kept laughing. The fairies jumped up and down silently as the fox winked at them.

Heimdall sighed as he looked back at the other fox and Hans blinked a few times as he called him closer. Loki frowned as Hans dipped his ears back, still holding the skull of the fox he’d made headless. “Alas poor Yorick, you will know him well at your times end.” Loki took the skull and placed it in a bag, hiding it from the kits who were trying to look out the windows of the pumpkin and motioned to his brother to hold it. Heimdall shook the bag as Loki waved a paw at it and removed it again, handing it back to Hans.

The farmer took it from the hare, curling his brow at the change in weight and the way it looked. Loki sighed as he struggled with its weight, and took it, placing it next to the door. “It is a head stone. When the last of your children have left home, you may lift it and return it to the headless fox and release him from service. Once he has his head, the horse may leave as well.” Hans bowed his head slightly as Loki smirked and looked back at the fairies. “You three, shall be the kits Fairy God Mothers. If you truly learn to love them and keep them safe as their parents work, the wings you gain will be more magnificent than any creature alive. Every color of the rainbow will fly with you.”

“Fairy God Mothers?” Hans asked as Loki watched Heimdall still shaking his head and rubbing his face.

“What else would you call them? They are not gods, and do not hold such power, but if there is a chance they may learn something, I will give them something from a God that will help.” They hopped around excitedly as Loki snapped the claws off his paw, watching wide eyed as he grabbed them by the end and stretched them into long wands. Heimdall sighed as he peeked through his fingers, chuckling as they each started shooting each other with different colors. They scurried into the pumpkin house and Hans dropped to a knee in front of them.

Loki narrowed his eyes and tilted his head as the fox bowed his head. “What can I offer to Gods? I am but a simple farmer.”

Loki and Heimdall lifted their eyes as one of the younger kits came out, whining as he held a paw to his father. “PAPA! ITHS GONE! HOW DO I PUT IT BACK?”

Hans chuckled as the little tod laid a tooth in his paw. “A new one will grow. You have seen this many times with your brothers and sisters. It will stay a sweet little tooth as another grows in its place.”

Loki smirked and Heimdall laughed as he shook his head. “You laugh? You already know what I am going to do because you saw the fairies path?”

Heimdall turned trying to keep his laughing from the small kit and his father as Hans looked up at them and raised a brow. Loki sighed as he extended his paw, asking for the tooth. Hans laid it in his paw as the kit cringed. “This shall be what your payment to the gods is. Leave the tooth each child loses at the bed each night and the fairies will pick them up. They will leave something sweet for a sweet little tooth and burn them with their wands. Each tooth that is burnt will let me know a child has grown. It will be a way to ask for my protection as all foxes are my children.”

Loki looked at Heimdall and the hare cupped a paw over his muzzle as he tried to keep from jostling any further. He narrowed his eyes as the vixen pulled the door open, dipping her ears back as Hans stood and told the child to go back inside. Hans ears flipped back as Heimdall turned and grasped Loki’s wrist, waiting for the child to slip inside before he let go and watched his brother fighting not to growl. The vixen bowed her head and turned her eyes as she clutched her apron. “Will you curse me again if step out and go to my mate?”

Loki curled his lip and shook his head. “I do not curse. I teach. You may leave the pumpkin to help your mate and children, but must return to it twice each day before the highest sun and the mid of night. If you cannot appreciate all you have and what you have been given, you will have nothing. The pumpkin will find you if you. If you step out and wander from either your mate or children or do not return at these times, all I have said shall come to pass. You may go to him, if he will still have you, or you will stay here and raise the children alone.” Loki scowled as Hans looked at her with his ears twitching.

The vixen turned her eyes and hiccupped several times, looking back at Hans. “Would you, still have me?”

Hans opened his arms as his eyes swelled over. Heimdall and Loki stepped away as she rushed to him. The hare sighed as they curled around each other and Loki lifted his head. “This. Is. Your. Alter. All you have to give each other is of yourself. If you break the heart that loves you, you will have no heart to hold. Do not allow any others to taint what you worship. Be. Faithful.” Loki turned and walked away, with Heimdall keeping pace as he looked back watching the vixen and tod still clinging to each other. “You cannot tell of the future another may seek or choose. Can you speak of it to someone else if they are not part of it?”

Heimdall raised a brow as he looked at Loki and scowled. “So you can tell them of it instead?”

“No. I do not wish to tell of it. Just to know what I have done will make a difference to one who could do such a…” he sighed as Heimdall grabbed his shoulder.

The hare smiled as the fox looked at him and raised a brow. “She will be faithful. Not because of what you have done, but because he knew and would still have her.” Loki looked back smiling as Heimdall chuckled and tapped his shoulder. “Let us come away and find some merriment that leaves this behind. You have grown as sour as the pumpkins he spoke of rotting.”

Heimdall scratched his nose as Loki frowned. “You believe I smell?”

The hare cocked his head and nodded. “You are in need of a bath and something to scrub this from your mind could not hurt either.”

“Hmm. That I may agree with.”

Heimdall threw his head back laughing as they started walking again….

**Notes; The legend of sleepy hollow and the names;**

**Katrina Van Tassel- Katrina; Pure. Van; Of. Tassel; A tuft of loose threads that has been knotted for decoration. Something very pretty and shown off. (It wasn’t intentional but I did grab the ‘loose’ tassel thing and run with it)**

**Ichabod Crane- Think I explained the way that came about clear enough.**

**Brom Van Brunt; Brom; A friend. Van; Of. Brunt; Burnt. Loki set him on fire and turned him into the headless Horseman.**

**Hans Van Ripper; Hans; Gracious. Van; Of. Ripper; Reap. Basket/Weaver. (Reap what you sow).**

**This ties in with Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater. It may sound cute, but it’s actually about a husband who couldn’t keep his wife because she cheated on him. He killed her and put her bones in a pumpkin where he kept her very well. Another version is about a rebellious wife who was bricked behind a wall to starve to death- very morbid.**

**Giving away the pie and using it to lure someone in- duh. Not the pumpkin pie she was giving away and letting others sample, but the smell of them often brought people to the door.**

**Loki says; “This will be the only way any can approach this Sleepy Hollow if they are bold enough to approach this small… farm of tassels.” Baltus Van Tassel; Baltus; the name meaning is bold which also means small farm. Loki creates a bridge that’s the only way to get back and forth to the farm. Baltus Van tassel is the name of the headless Horseman’s bridge that goes to and from the Sleepy Hollow and Katrina. In the original story it’s her father’s name.**

**This also has hints about the little old lady who lived in a shoe, and trolls living under bridges who demand payment to cross.**

**“Alas poor Yorick,” (This isn’t an exact quote, but commonly repeated); From Hamlet - Shakespeare. The name Yorick means farmer. They will now each other well because of the situation and because all mortals die- headstones- Hehehe.**

**The name peter means stone. The song was only chosen for its lyrics. Ties in with the scrolls of Odin. Tooth fairy was obvious. Magical pumpkins that someone has to return to at noon and midnight. Three Fairy God mothers who don’t hold a lot of power without their wands and have no wings while they care for mortal children. Gosh I wonder what stories all that ties into- pfft. ( Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella) Oh and him guarding the crops is also a nod to scare crows.**

**Rotting pumpkins- imagine being in a small valley (Hollow) of them where there wasn’t a great deal of wind to remove the stench. Pumpkins and many other rotting foods emit methane gas. It would cause someone to become irritable, confused, and dizzy if they were exposed too long. If the exposure wasn’t kept at a minimum it would cause someone to become sleepy (Sleepy Hollow) or faint and could lead to respiratory distress/death. (Not likely something that could be caused in an open area, but it fit the story)**

**There isn’t much I could find about Loki actually being worshipped, he was revered and feared, but I read of a tradition on the Faroe islands where baby teeth were thrown into a fire to ask him to protect their children. Hence; Loki having the fairies burn the teeth and creating tooth fairies. Loki was granted all the things people left behind. Hair, fingernails, teeth, among other- things…Eww.**


	18. The Black Forest; Said The Spider To The Fly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yikes-

**The Black Forest - Said The Spider To The Fly**

Egypt Central; White Rabbit

Heimdall led the way and Loki tipped a brow as he watched another fox strolling along. The hare tried to keep him from moving forward looking at the odd attire the fox was wearing. “Loki, look at what they wear. They do not seem to fit all we have seen here.”

Loki curled his brow agreeing. “That is why I am curious. I wish to know what it is upon his head.”

Heimdall sighed as Loki yelled to get their attention. The fox turned with a curious brow as the cat beside him nearly knocked him over from stumbling. Loki cocked his head to the side as he got close enough to see the cat swaying. “Is he ailing with something?”

The fox sighed and shook his head as he used a paw to steady the small cat. “No, just too many spirits.”

“Spirits?” Loki asked as the other fox turned his eyes to the hare beside him and smiled slowly as Heimdall looked them over.

“My friend, what manner of rabbit are you to be so white?”

Heimdall curled his lip watching the cat hiccup several times as his eyes fell to a lazy glaze. “I am a hare, not a rabbit. We should away from this Loki, we have no time to…”

“Oh,” The fox shot as he shook his head. “Why be in such a hurry?” he looked back at Loki smiling as the fox kept examining his hat. “Honest John, at your service. Do you like it?” He plucked the hat off his head and handed it to Loki, chuckling as he stuck it under his nose sniffing at it. “I wouldn’t do that too much if I were you.”

“Why?” Loki asked as Heimdall scowled at the cat who had climbed into a tree grinning like an idiot as he rolled over.

“Loki, we should leave and be on our...”

“Where are you going?” The cat asked as Heimdall curled his lip.

“We do not know, we simply need to find a place to stay for the night and take a bath.”

The cat rolled over laughing as Heimdall scowled and Loki looked at it as the fox took his hat back. “If you don’t know where you are going, what difference does it make which way you go?”

Heimdall scowled at the feline. “That’s terribly helpful. Who are you anyway?”

“I am Gideon Cheshire.” Loki chuckled as he watched his brother frowning at the cat. “What is your name?”

“I am called Hare.”

“That is your species. Do you not know who you are?” the cat asked still grinning as he jumped, disappearing into the shadows for a moment before his face reappeared in another part of the tree.

Heimdall scowled and tried to coax Loki to leave again as Honest John chuckled. “If you are in need of a place to stay and a bath, come to my parlor! I will show you of the hats you like so much.” Loki glanced back at Heimdall and the hare rolled his eyes. “Come now, curiosity never killed anyone, Hare!”

Honest John prodded Heimdall and he sighed as Loki waved a paw. They watched the cat fall from the tree and stumble into the fox before they walked a path that had them both raising their ears at the laughter coming from within a parlor. The place was brightly painted, an unusual sight in the black forest as Honest John opened the door, bowing as he held to it open to allow them in. Heimdall and Loki curled their noses at the smell. “What is that?”

Honest John chuckled. “Mercury. It is a foul substance, but the only way to make the hats.”

Loki raised a brow as several foxes looked up from a work station, giving them a disbelieving look as they tossed hats around. They scrambled around the table grabbing teapots and cups and Heimdall shook his head as Honest John waved them to a seat. “Come and have tea with us.”

“There are no seats! There is no room!” One of the foxes barked.

Heimdall looked at Loki shaking his head and lowered his voice. “They are all mad! Look at how they act as children, pretending the teapots dance around!”

Loki frowned as he watched them moving from seat to seat, moving the teapots as if they were alive. “Then I see no reason to upset them. A cup of this tea will not harm us Heimdall.”

Heimdall groaned as Loki took a seat and watched the foxes around the table give them a funny look as Honest John sat with Gideon and passed them a brightly colored tea pot. “Have a bit of tea, I shall have them make you a tailored hat and cape like mine! You will be the grandest of foxes and hares in these parts! Would you like sugar?”

Heimdall shook his head. “No.” Loki looked at the hat Honest John was wearing and leaned towards Heimdall as the hare made a noise that hadn’t caught anyone else’s ears. “Something about this place is not right, Loki. No one in this world gives things away.”

“So, why is he?” Loki asked watching the fox talking to the cat as he poured the tea.

“Make these fine fellows something that will show others they are the highest of society!” Honest John smiled as he passed the cups, watching the other foxes bickering as they shied away and tried to hide themselves and what they were doing. 

Loki curled his lip up eyeing the foxes as he watched their paws shake, while they kept trying to hide the fact that they weren’t moving the way a normal person would, and displayed odd traits that made it obvious their minds were not in the right place. He looked back at Heimdall as the hare looked at the cup and shook his head. “It is too hot.”

“It will cool if you are patient.” Honest John cringed as Loki looked into the tea cup. “Do you not know that good things come to those who wait? Time will pass quickly enough.”

Heimdall tipped a brow watching the foxes, they were all enthralled with the pocket watch Honest John was looking at before he started swing it back and forth. Loki looked around and sighed as Heimdall watched the cat slip away from the table. He leaned towards his brother and the hares ears shot up as the fox lowered his voice. “You can cool this, I do not wish to be rude, but I would like to leave as the smell is very unpleasant.” Heimdall sighed looking at the foxes and cringed as he grabbed both cups, cooling the outer shell. Loki smacked a paw to his head after lifting the cup when the tea fell out and landed in a solid chunk on the table. Honest John sat up wide eyed as the Heimdall fought not to twist his ears together. “Brother, have you no control over that?” Loki mumbled as Honest John stood, marveling at the ice.

“I have not used this ability in such a small manner before!”

The fox in a silk hat and long cape stepped closer and smiled as Heimdall and Loki cringed. “Look friends! Our pal makes ice! Something only seen in the cold months and here it is March, Hare!”

Heimdall and Loki looked back at Honest John a little shocked as the other foxes perked their ears and watched. “You do not fear this?”

“Pah,” Honest John waved a paw as he sat his watch on the table and leaned closer. “The Black forest hides many secrets. Are you gifted with other magical abilities like this, Hare?”

Heimdall shook his head. “It is not magic, just something I was born knowing how to do. I do not hold any magic.”

“It is a type of magic, as no one else can do such a thing. And you?” He asked as Loki looked back at Heimdall shaking his head.

“I cannot do anything like this.” Heimdall turned his head trying not to smile. It wasn’t a lie, Loki couldn’t do anything with ice, but he said nothing in regards to being a God, having sway over fire, or the many types of magic he knew and held.

Honest John chewed his lip as the hare examined the frozen chunk of tea that had fallen out of Loki’s cup and curled his lip. Heimdall stood scowling as Loki tipped a curious brow. “It is not sugar - What is in this tea?!”

Loki tapped the frozen tea and raised a brow as it split, revealing several chunks of small while crystals. He looked at the foxes and narrowed his eyes as the same tod shook his head. “There are no seats! There is no room!”

Loki snarled. “You lure them here with promises of gifts that will make others see them as something they are not and poison them to make the things you sell?! They have not even enough mind left to speak true words to warn others even when they try! You make them mad to make the hats! You wished to make us mad, enslave us to do your work?!”

The fox in a silk hat sneered in an evil smile and shrugged. “The only way to get what you deserve is to take it. No matter the cost.”

Loki stood growling and Honest John shrank against a wall as he lifted his paws in flaming balls of fire. “You will get what you deserve.” Honest John lifted his paws as Loki tossed the table aside. Heimdall jumped behind him waving to the other foxes as he tried to get them to leave. They stood there like deer in headlights, not really understanding anything he said and he looked around trying to find anything to persuade them as Loki growled loud enough to set his ears. The hare spotted the pocket watch that had fallen when Loki tossed the table aside and picked it up, swinging it back and forth. The foxes all froze watching the shiny object as Heimdall stepped closer to the door. “Look, see how shiny it is? I will give it to you if you follow me.” He jumped back and forth in an erratic pattern as they kept their eyes on the watch and followed him blindly as he led them outside. Heimdall cringed as the parlor burst into flames. Looking around for somewhere to get the foxes so they wouldn’t be harmed. He found a hollow under a tree and crawled in, poking his head back out and waving the watch around before the foxes dove in after him. He tossed the watch into the deepest part and crawled back out, watching the parlor explode as Loki walked from the flames, dragging Honest John by the collar.

Heimdall cringed as another small blast sent things flying and ducked as several shards of broken mirrors flew over his head. Looking back he jumped away and watched Loki shove the stunned fox against a tree. “You will never speak again, for your words are only worth a ton to make others an ass! No fox shall be a foul fellow and lead others astray!”

“LOKI!” Heimdall cringed as Loki looked back at him with flaming eyes. “You can use your magic to undo what has happe-

“No - I cannot Heimdall. What is in their blood will burst into flames and kill them if I try.” Heimdall looked back to the hole the foxes were peeking out of and sighed as Loki shoved Honest John into a large piece of shattered mirror that had wedged into the tree. He stepped closer letting his jaw drop as Honest John threw his paws against the other side of the mirror and blinked as the image shifted. Loki growled, “If you believed that appearances are all that matter, it is all you shall ever be! You believed waiting would get you what you wanted, it is all you will ever do from this day forward.” Honest John changed to the reflection of Loki who kept frowning at the image as he turned. Heimdall raised a brow as the image in the mirror stayed watching for a moment longer, before it dropped its head and turned, mirroring the actions of Loki as he walked away.

Loki topped, watching the foxes shrink back into the hole and sighed as Heimdall let his chin drop. “We cannot leave them here like this. They will never survive, Loki.”

Loki ground his teeth as he looked around and closed his eyes as he bent to his knees, shoving his paws in the Earth. Heimdall stepped away with his brows going up as a door grew from the roots that curled around the opening and the foxes fled inside as it closed over them. “You mean to bury them alive?!”

Loki stood glaring at his brother and pulled the door open, motioning for him to go back into what had once been a hole in the ground. Heimdall sighed as he jumped in, landing on bent knees as he looked around blinking. Loki fell next to him and smirked as the hare let his jaw fall. He stood and stepped off the blocked tiles and into a field full of flowers taller that he was, watching the foxes laughing and chasing each other through the flowers that were singing above them. “Loki…what have you.. What is this place?”

Loki chuckled as Heimdall looked around shaking his head. “Their minds no longer understand much of what they should. It is just a place that reflects the happiness they still held. What was in their minds and what they wished and thought of the most. That one thought of nothing but flowers and a garden. The vixen, she thought of singing constantly. There was always some kind of tune in her head from her childhood. The other tod, he thought of foods, sweet things. They were the happiest thoughts in their minds, all something from when they were very young, so I put them all together in this place. They will never wake from what has been done to them, they may as well stay in a place where they can be stay the happiest in their minds, because they will not survive in the world. Everything they need will be right here.” Heimdall tipped his head to one side as Loki grabbed a chunk of a mushroom and shoved it in his mouth. “I believe it is some kind of cake.”

Heimdall raised a brow as Loki held a piece out to him and took it warily. He nibbled on it and his ears jerked up. His eyes shot back to Loki when he snickered. “It’s made of carrots.”

The fox laughed as he motioned back to the entrance. “Carrot cake. There are many others here, all seem to be a different color of the mushrooms the one who liked gardens had in his mind.” Loki looked back as Heimdall cocked his head to the side and chuckled as the hare curled his lip.

“You mean to leave them looking like this?”

Loki shrugged as he watched the vixen skipping around the tods, dressed in a blue and white dress that stood out against the odd attire and top hates they were both wearing. “It is what they chose for themselves. No one will ever see them. This place will stay hidden from any who could harm them. They will never want for anything as it will be created by whatever is in their minds. They are much like children now because of the…”

Heimdall cupped a paw over his muzzle as Loki choked back a growl. “And what of the one you placed in the looking glass? You cursed him?”

“I did.” Loki growled as he looked at the foxes jumping around each other. “He will live in a world where anything that can be found in a mirror will be his and have all the riches he wished to obtain by damaging others. But he will never have himself. Each time a mirror shatters he will lose all that was reflected in it.” The fox looked back at his brother and curled his lip. “He will never have or be anything but a reflection of what he sees, as he has made them nothing more than a reflection of what they once were.” Heimdall leaned over and picked up the watch he’d used to lure the foxes and Loki waved a paw back to the entrance. “I am in agreement we should away from this. Do not leave that here, they will never understand the concept of passing time as they age and die. This place will remain until they are no more and provide and protect for them until it is no longer needed.”

Heimdall sighed as he looked over the pocket watch and shoved it in his pocket. He jumped through the entrance after Loki and watched as he closed the door, leaning away as the fox waved a paw over it. The vines that had created the door twisted and grew until nothing but a large tree stood in its place. The entrance was gone as Loki turned glaring at the reflection in the shards of the mirror that were still wedged in another tree. Heimdall shook his head as he looked back and caught the last of the parlor smoking on the ground. He grabbed Loki by the shoulder, pulling his attention away from the images and back to the path as he bowed his head slightly and waved them forward again. “Yes, we are late. Let us hurry away from this….

**Notes; The spider lured the fly into its lair by offering gifts, praise, and telling it how attractive it was. The fly never left the spiders lair and was ensnared by flattery. A white hare who is mistaken as a rabbit. Pal who makes ice- Alice. The term mad as a hatter was often given to hat makers who suffered from Mercury poisoning. Mercury nitrate was used to soften the pelt and felt them together, either in the urine of workers who had been using it as an ailment for another disease and later in crystal form, it’s also explosive if in a gas form and exposed to heat (Why Loki couldn’t fix the foxes and why the parlor exploded) Honest John is from Pinocchio, and represents the mad hatter. Heimdall also represents the march hare, they jump around in erratic patterns during the breeding season which is where the term mad a as a march hare came from. Gideon was the cat who helped Honest John fool Pinocchio and also represents the Cheshire cat, he’s drunk and managed to slip away. Cheshire is a block of solid cheese that crumbles easily. The watch Heimdall is swinging back and forth to lure the foxes outside is connected with the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland but is also a nod to the three foxes who mindlessly follow a clock- a nod to the truth behind the three blind mice poem.**

**_“_** your words are only **_worth a ton_** that **_makes others into asses_**. No fox shall be **_a foul fellow_** and **_lead others astray_**!”

**Honest John’s real name in Pinocchio is John Worthington Foulfellow and he eventually leads Pinocchio to an island that turns boys into jackasses who can’t speak. These foxes have been poisoned and can’t talk well enough to explain what they’re trying to say. Loki shoving him into the mirror is the looking glass and Loki makes him into nothing more than the reflection of the images everyone will see in them. He created the other side of the looking glass, where Honest John is only a reflection of what appears in front of a mirror. He’s the only one Loki actually curses with something that will never change because what he’s done to the other foxes can’t be undone.**


	19. The Black Forest; Pin-occhio

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Santa's coming- but not in anyway you'd expect.

**The Black Forest – Pin-occhio**

Heimdall: America; Magic

Loki: Bruno Mars; 24k

As they reached the edge of the woods, the red fox curled his lip up and watched as Heimdall pulled a sword, each of them going back to back as they looked around and narrowed their eyes. Loki’s ears perked as several yapping laughs rounded the trees and he stood straight with a slightly curled lip as several large hyenas stepped from the trees. The fox narrowed his eyes as he looked to their feet, each of them wearing a finely made pair of shoes that kept the mud from their fur. He tilted his head as one cringed with a step. “Where did you get the coverings on your feet?”

The hyena tipped its head and Heimdall lifted his ears as a silken voice swooned and purred, leaning forward. “Come and follow. We will take you from the cold of the night and fill your ears with heaven.” The hare lifted a brow to the fox and Loki squinted as three voices joined in a vocalization that had the red fox’s ears tilt as he lifted his head.

Loki watched them walk into the trees and tipped his nose the same direction as Heimdall shook his head. “They bewitch the ones they lure with their beautiful voices, Heimdall. The coverings of their feet are too small. Let them lead us as if we are entranced.” The hare nodded as he took on a dazed look and followed after the hyenas as they kept their voices pitched in the alternating tones of an angelic sound. Loki and Heimdall followed as they made their way through the forest and stopped at a den they all waved towards as the fox kept a flat face and stepped forward. He looked around after stepping inside and took a seat with the hare as several foxes looked up and shied their eyes.

A vixen dipped her head as several kits stayed locked onto the skirt she wore and the tod kept his eyes to the floor as the hyenas danced around the room. Loki held a paw low as they looked them both over, letting the hyena take the pouches and bags they had before they all left smiling. The door to the tiny place closed and the red fox tipped his ears back as he leaned forward. “You live in this place, made of straw and twigs, with only dirt to hold it together?” The tod across from him dropped his head as he looked back to the vixen and kits curled around her as she attempted to heat the hearth again.

“We would offer you anything we had to give, Sir. But we are trapped here as much as you and they used the last of our stores this night. They only keep us to watch the ones they bring until they have found all they search for. We will be disposed of as all the others they have caught when they are at the end of their hunt.” Loki looked back at Heimdall scowling and looked around shaking his head. The red fox across from him jumped as the fire in the hearth grew and swung his eyes to the fox and hare as Loki’s eyes lit up a bright red.

“The coverings on their feet. Where did they get them?”

The tod looked to his paws and sighed as he shook his head. “I meant no harm. I only wished to help ones I thought were in need. My name is Shoemaker. I am a tailor by trade and peddle what I create. The…shoes are only needed when the rain has fallen so much that the feet would be covered in mud.” Heimdall curled his lip as Loki sat, straightening his back.

“You are a tailor? You made the coverings of their feet?” The fox nodded as he looked to his mate and watched their kits curl up with her as she sat on the ground.

The red god fox’s eyes glowed and they watched his eyes flame as he raised his head higher. The tailor looked at the door and reached into his pocket pulling out a pipe, heavily carved in wood with a fine handle as he held it to the red fox. “It is all I have. If you are not still afflicted with the spell of their voices, I can only assume you are gods. I would give it and the only other thing I have of value if you could get my family out of here.” Loki looked up as the fox stood in front of him dipping his head as he held the pipe out. He took it looking it over and shook his head as the red fox held out both paws. “All I have left is to put myself in your service for the debt I cannot pay.”

Loki’s brow dropped as the vixen curled around the kits and Heimdall sucked in a deep breath as she curled her arms around their kits, turning their heads. “A fine pipe you should keep and sell to care for your family if you have no use of it, and nor do I. You say you have nothing to offer? Why do you not serve the goose on the fire?” The hare turned his head hiding his smirk as the foxes all turned back, blinking at the scent of a roasting bird. Loki gave him back his pipe and made a shushing motion after the vixen cut it up, serving it to everyone as Heimdall’s ears lifted.

Loki turned his head as the door opened and sat straighter as the hyenas looked them over frowning. “Why are you moved? Why are you not still fixed where we left you seated?”

The red fox God looked back at Heimdall and smirked as the hare stood, motioning to the other foxes to step behind him. The hyenas opened their mouths to sing again and chirped as Loki waved a paw in front of them, frowning as they clutched their throats. Cowering as they shrank in size. “What is your name?” Loki asked as the leader as he dipped forward growling.

“C-Carol.” She answered struggling to spit out the words.

“Such beautiful voices and yet you use them like sirens to lure those you prey on to their death. From this day forward none of your kind will ever sing or laugh like this again. Each time you try all the world will hear is the cackling of an old witch. For taking that which was offered in hospitality and returning nothing but trouble, you will come to the home you destroyed each night and build the shoes the tailor makes. Until such a time his mate makes you clothes that will set you free. Each night you will go out and sing. Carol will take all these voices that no longer hold beauty and ask at the door of one home each night for your dinner. You will understand that beauty does not lie in what is seen and heard, but what is given from a charitable heart, and you will only be seen as this size, when you must ask for another’s help, otherwise you will be no bigger than the nails you use to create the shoes you saw fit to steal. Kindness will not be repaid with treachery.” He waved his paw again and Heimdall looked down seeing three little hyenas no bigger than his thumb.

They rushed out the door as Loki growled, and he tipped his head to the foxes gaping from the corner as Heimdall stepped aside smiling. Loki stepped closer to the fire and looked around the little home shaking his head. “This will not do. The strong breath from a wolf would knock the home over.” He looked down seeing three little kits looking up at him blinking. “You cannot be safe in a home built of hay and sticks.” He stuck his paw to his nose winking, and Heimdall shook his head as he shifted to a dark swirl of ash and blew out the door. The foxes let their jaws hang as the ash fell through the chimney and Loki reappeared in front of the hearth smiling as it swirled into his shape, and flashed into a flame that circled the room before shifting into the shape of a huge black fox with yellow eyes and a howling laugh as he rushed up the chimney with the flames. The home engulfed in flame and changed from the stick and straw held together with mud, to solid red bricks. A bright red door and red cloaks hung at the side as the foxes looked around blinking. The tod picked them up looking around and shook his head at the stocks of clothing and fine furniture in the home. Loki and Heimdall stayed the night, and Heimdall spoke quietly as Loki laid next to the fire. “How did you create the meat?”

Loki snickered as he rolled over. “I did not. You know I cannot do that. The goose was made from fruits, mostly pears and apples. You did not taste it, but the foxes did not complain.”

Heimdall chuckled remembering them sharing their stories and rolled over as Loki sighed. They left the foxes early the next morning to continue on their way.

The next morning when the foxes woke, they found several pairs of finely made shoes sitting in the window because the gods had told the hyenas to leave them. When the vixen swept the ash from around the floor and at the edge of the fireplace, she found a bag filled with silver coins and looked back to her mate smiling…..

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“You left them the silver?” Heimdall nudged Loki as they walked again, snickering as the fox shrugged. Loki stumbled upon an older fox as Heimdall watched from behind. The other fox wept beside the river as Loki covered his fur and head in his cloak, taking the shape of an old witch again as he sat beside the old tod. “I am Pokk, why do you weep? I see no injury on you.”

The old tod looked at him and smiled as he shook his head. “I make toys and leave them for the children in the village not far from here. But each time they see me they hide, they fear me because I am a fox. My son is not so gentle. He is angry and mean. My mate and I have lost our other children to harsh winters and illness. No matter what we teach, he does not listen. He is lonely and bitter.”

Loki looked back to Heimdall and sighed. “My companion and I seek good company on our journey. I am sure your son is only misguided, but we can regale the tales of our travels to cheer you if you would give us shelter this night?”

The old tod looked back and blinked as Heimdall tipped his head. “You travel with a rabbit?”

Heimdall rolled his eyes as Loki chuckled. “He is a hare. Apparently, they are scarce in these parts of the world.”

The old tod dipped his head and shied his eyes, apologizing as Heimdall smiled. “You are well traveled then? Company you shall have this night. I would love to hear of the world I wish to see! My mate makes a nice dinner and heavy sweet breads.”

Loki stood grabbing the cane and leaning into it as the hare looked her over grinning. “Do not speak of this form, Heimdall. Most seem more trusting of it than my own.”

The hare laughed lowly as they followed the old tod back to a well-hidden den, and they both looked around at the little shack outside it blinking. Axes, wood of all kinds and strings hung everywhere, carving tools and knives, toys in all different shapes and sizes sat on the benches and tables as Loki looked around smiling. “You make these toys? What is your name?”

The old Tod chuckled as he nodded, picking up a crossed section of wood he wiggled around as the puppet attached started dancing along the floor. “The forest provides plenty to use. It is just a hobby. My name is Geppetto, but the children call me Mr. Claws.”

“Why do you give them away? Why do they call you this, Mr. Claws?” Loki asked as Heimdall inspected several little sleds and wooden dolls.

“It is warming to see those who cannot afford them have something they cherish. I must sneak into town and can only do it once in a year’s time. On the coldest night of the year, so my scent does not carry in the wind.” Heimdall looked back at Loki blinking as he shook his head. The old tod smiled as he sat down the puppet and shrugged. “They only know of red and white fur. I am aged but still move well and can hide. I have only been seen by a few of the children in the town when I have had to sneak in and leave the toys by the fires instead of at their doors.”

Loki’s ears tipped as he smiled. “By the fires? How do you sneak them into the homes?”

The old tod chuckled as he motioned towards the entrance of the den. “Some do not have a place outside where others would not take what I would leave. So I crawl through the chimney around the smoke and flames, and leave them at the edge of the hearth. I scraped one of the hearths with my claws one night and the name came about that way. The smoke covers my scent, so no one has figured out I am a fox.”

The old vixen Loki had become chuckled as she looked at Heimdall and nodded. “How do you crawl with the toys?” The older tod shrugged, smiling as he opened his shirt, stuffing several inside as Loki laughed. “You look as if you are fat! I have found a true fox!”

Heimdall snickered as they were led inside and sat down as an older vixen stirred a pot. “This is my mate, Nicole.” Loki and Heimdall tipped their heads and introduced themselves before she sat down and dished them each a bowl at the table, slicing a large piece of bread for each of them as Loki sniffed it and closed his eyes smiling. Geppetto chuckled as he looked back at him. “She often makes these sweet breads for me to leave in the stockings left hanging over the hearths in the homes I visit. They are well liked.”

“Made with dried fruit?” Heimdall asked with a curled nose after tasting it. “It tastes more like cake. It is very good.”

“Thank you.” The vixen smiled as they both nodded and sighed as she took her seat. “Christopher!”

Loki and Heimdall both lifted their ears as a young tod rushed in and jumped to the table. The little fox narrowed his eyes on the bowl and pushed it aside, giving his mother a dirty look as she shied her eyes. She gave him another dish as his father frowned. “Christopher.” His father whispered as he looked up at him. “Do not crinkle your nose at your mother’s food in the company of guests.” He curled his brow as the young fox frowned. “What happened to the toy I made you yesterday?”

“It fell apart. They always fall apart.” The older fox flicked his ears back as he looked at his wife who shied her eyes. Loki and Heimdall looked at each other as both foxes went about eating their food. She cleared the table as their son stared at the old witch in front of him. “You are ugly. Why do you not have teeth?”

Loki lifted a brow as his mother shook her head and shooed him from the room. “Apologies. He is young and has lost so many siblings.”

Heimdall looked at the floor as Loki sat straighter, leaning into the cane. “Loss should not make one so rude. What has happened to the toy his father made for him?”

She shook her head and sighed. “We are not sure.”

The older Tod sighed as he stood and motioned to another area. “You are welcome to stay the night. Stay warm by the hearth if you wish it.”

Heimdall dipped his head as they slipped into another section of the den and looked at Loki as he shook his head. “One who gives away the toys he makes through an entire year and they break so easily? He says he loves to see the joy they bring and if they broke so easily, he would see none.”

Loki agreed. “Go and be nosey for me, they would smell me too easily and you are not as strongly scented.”

Heimdall lifted both brows and narrowed his eyes as he lowered his voice. “I cannot snoop in a home we are guests in! They have fed us and though we need no warmth, they offer it!”

Loki deadpanned him as Heimdall’s nose twitched. “Fine, we will pay it back, but I do not know how to snoop with them not knowing I am snooping.” The old vixen wrinkled her nose as Heimdall shook his head. “No Loki- do not use your mag-

The fox lifted an old paw and pointed as he stuck his finger on the side of his nose and winked. Heimdall chirped as a puff of dust surrounded him and looked up scowling as the fox leaned over on the cane snickering. “I AM BLUE! WHY AM I BLUE! HOW AM I TO FIND OUT ANYTHING BEING THIS SMALL?!” he whisper screamed.

Loki smirked as he picked up Heimdall by the ears and sat him on the table. “Hold still, Brother. I will fix that too.” Heimdall’s whiskers twitched and his cheek ticked when the fox stuck his crinkled old fingers on his ears and used his claws to move them. They slid off his head onto his back. The hare shivered as he grabbed his head and frowned.

“You moved my ears!? Will they move back to where they belong?!”

The fox ticked his head back and forth and nodded. “Close…fairly. But you should be able to move them fast enough that you can fly.”

“Fly? Figures, since I am not much bigger than one!” Loki chuckled as he dipped his head, green eyes shining as the hare scowled.

“Just go find out what ails this family, or I will put you in a pretty dress too.”

Heimdall took to the air swinging wildly before he figured out how to move his…wings, and Loki laughed. The hare grumbled as he finally found the right rhythm and left the room, nosing around the little den. Loki waited, and waited, but his brother didn’t return. He stood on the cane as the old witch he’d become peeked through several rooms, until he stumbled on the young fox and silently watched. His eyes narrowed as the kit kept hold of Heimdall’s ears that had been moved to his back, and he curled his lip as the young fox picked up one of the toys his father had made and threw it, smashing it into the wall. “You are better than a stupid toy! You are no bigger than my thumb! I will call you Tom Thumb!” Heimdall curled his lips as the little fox pinched his wings (Ears) together. Loki stood taller as the young tod’s parents came in to investigate the crash they’d heard.

The fox who had disguised himself as an old witch flashed and stood with a curled lip as his nine tails whipped around angrily behind him. Heimdall shook his head and folded his arms over his chest as the kit dropped him and stared in shock. His parents both blinked as the fox god pointed a finger at their son. “You break what your father has put time and love into, you do not appreciate the toys he creates or the food your mother makes. Until you honor your parents and understand the value of the life they have given you, you shall remain nothing but a toy.”

The kit blinked and yelped as Loki held up a paw, dropping to the floor and looking over the wooden arms and body he now had. “Change me back! I did not break the toys!” His nose grew as Loki smirked.

Geppetto shook his head as he fell and clutched Loki’s leg. “Please, I would never wish for such a thing! He meant no harm and deserves no curse!”

Loki shook his head as the foxes stared. “Foxes do not lie, each time you tell a lie it will be as plain as the nose on your face. He will stay a puppet until he is a good boy, a good fox.” He turned back to see both parents teary eyed as their son examined his wooden limbs. “Do not spoil the child simply because he is the only one you have. He will not appreciate anything you do for him if he is never punished for taking what you give him for granted. When he misbehaves leave him with coal to keep him warm and no dinner when he refuses what you offer. Do not give him more toys than he can love. He will cherish none if they are at the ready each time he breaks one. The eye of his heart is no bigger than a pin. He will learn and become a real fox when he cares as much for you and others as he does himself. He shall be called Pinocchio. For the pin of the size of the eye in his heart. Until he is worthy of another name and knows true value, he will no longer be called Chris or be able to crinkle his nose at what his mother and father offer. I do not curse this family. I only teach a lesson the parents and child must learn. You have good hearts, continue with your son as you have with the children of the village you visit each year, and he will follow in your footsteps, good Geppetto.”

“I am ugly. I don’t have any fur….will I break?” The little fox kit asked, sniffling as he thumped to the floor, still gawking at his own limbs as Loki looked back and smiled. His parents rushed to him, curling around him as they wiped his eyes. Loki felt a twinge as he dipped to his knees and held out a paw. The little fox sat up as sparkles swirled, and blinked as a tiny lizard appeared in his paw. “I will leave you with a friend who will stay so you are never lonely, and guide you when your parents cannot.”

The little lizard hopped out of Loki’s paw and onto Pinocchio’s nose as he blinked. “Jiminy! He is no bigger than a cricket! Can he talk like the blue fairy?”

Heimdall rolled his eyes as Loki smirked. “He will grow. His name is Pluto, he is the smallest of his kind. He will eat the worms and bugs your mother does not want inside and help keep your den clean. If you listen, he can talk.”

“He is a toy?” the kit asked and blinked as the little lizard shook its head. “You can understand me?” he giggled as it bobbed up and down, hissing as its tail wagged back and forth.

Loki stood smirking as his parents looked at each other shaking their heads. “He will be your best friend if you treat him well. All he will wish for is your attention and that you pet him to keep him happy.” Loki chuckled as the kit turned his head, the lizard wagged its tail and stuck its tongue out panting before it was licking his face making him laugh. “You will not break, your heart will grow. This is your first lesson, little Pinocchio. Your parents will love you no matter what you do, or how you look, so you should love and honor them in return. Parents are saints to their children and should be treated as such by their children.” He pointed a finger at Heimdall and changed him back, laughing as he clutched his head, checking the position of his ears and the color of his fur. The hare narrowed his eyes as he stepped closer to Loki. “Words of wisdom, Brother?”

Heimdall put on a fake smile as he looked back to young Pinocchio. “To be Christopher again, Chris must be merry.” The hare blinked as he pulled one of his pouches out and handed it to the older tod. “It will help you with your toys. It shrinks anything you place in it and will never fill. It will multiply all you add to it until you wish it no more. Think on what you wish to pull from it, turn it over and it will fall from the pouch.”

Loki nodded as he smirked at his brother. “Outside in the morning you shall find a magic sled to help you with your toys. It will dash across the snow, dance across ice, and prance over trees. It will blitzen like the stars and be gone in a flash as it flies like a comet. It will glide like it has wings from cupid and be the bright dawn of knowledge in children before the day your toys are found.”

Heimdall scoffed as the foxes looked back to them. “And what will you name this…ship you leave, Loki?”

The red fox chuckled as he looked to the side and smirked. “It will be a bright red, trimmed in white to match what the few who have seen you spotted, and move as gracefully as any…. Vixen. She will show you the world you wish to see.”

The young fox who’d changed to a puppet curled into both his parents and Loki smirked as the kit told them both he loved them, breaking into a wide smile as his eyes crossed, watching his nose shrink back to his face. Loki stood and sighed. “Lesson two, Pinocchio. Truth will show you as you should be seen.” He bent lower and smiled as the foxes blinked at him and Heimdall.

“You are gods? Stars that fell from heaven?” Pinocchio asked as Loki nodded, still smiling at them.

“Lesson three. You will live as long as the heart you have beats for others, when a heart of gold warms the darkest of places in the world. If you can spread that love, little Pinocchio, you will never feel lonely and the love the world returns to you will keep you young forever in the eyes of the heart you should have always seen through… the eyes of a happy child.”

Heimdall rolled his eyes laughing, and they left the little family all curled together as they stepped back to the wooded path. The buck sneered at the fox and narrowed his eyes. “I think I am shorter now and my ears are not in the right place!”

Loki laughed as he shook his head. “Stretch your legs, Heimdall. Maybe that will help. You know I am not sure that spell will not turn you into a Ljosalfar.”

Heimdall narrowed his eyes as Loki chuckled and shot forward. “THOSE ARE JUST FAIRY TALES MOTHER TOLD US AS CHILDREN! THAT IS NOT FUNNY LOKI, I DO NOT WANT TO BE AN ELF!” Loki laughed as he looked over his shoulder, jumping as Heimdall started rushing after him. They chased each other all over the woods, laughing as they made their way back to the den of wolves.

At the entrance, they watched as the young pups scrambled inside. The fox and hare walked in and Loki narrowed his eyes as he looked over the pups, cowering behind their father. “I have explained this to the others I have encountered but it seems it is not done by many, anymore.” He watched Heimdall biting his lip and narrowed his eyes. “No matter what it is or where you are. No canine will ever mark anything with something other than the scent of their own fur again!” Loki set his fur on fire to make his point and all the pups nodded as Nason flipped his ears back and dipped his head. Loki smirked as they all rushed from the den and turned as his brother laughed. “You lied! You did not tell them to piss on me!”

The hare shrugged as he shot him a smug look. “I am not a fox, I can do that. There was too much risk you would be angry and you cannot burn me, Brother.”

Loki rolled his eyes and turned back to Nason as he tipped his head. “There is a fox coming. He has seven sons and a daughter he struggles to hunt for with no mate. Would you allow him to work in the mines with you?”

Nason nodded as he shrugged. “No one sees where the gold and gems come from or cares who digs for them. So long as he does not steal and is a good worker, I would even let his sons work there. Many fear working in the mines because there are gases that are invisible and can kill without warning in the darkness.

Loki lifted a brow shaking his head. “Cage a small bird. If there is enough gas to kill the small bird it will be a warning to others that they need to leave. To pay this back you must take bread and feed the birds that live in the place the one is taken from. Release it and catch a new one in a month’s time so the birds will become immune, but still tell you of trouble.”

Nason dipped his head as Heimdall lifted a brow. They watched the wolf leaving to the mines as the hare leaned closer. “Loki, you cannot change things in the mortal world. Why did you tell him that?”

Loki sniffed as he looked to the ceiling. “I did not say I would change them, Brother. The birds will evolve eventually and become immune if they are exposed enough would they not? It is beneficial to the birds who will change to live through it over time, and those who live in the mines who are kept safe by them, is it not?” The hare laughed as Loki shrugged.

They spent a year with the wolves as Loki went back and forth, teaching each fox he met. Heimdall watched and listened as his brother sought them, while he himself had taken journeys with rabbits, teaching them many things. Each time they returned they had new stories to tell the wolves about the mammals they’d met. The night of one year came as Loki stood above the town of Gosforth. Heimdall tipped his head in that direction, and watched as Loki took on his disguise of Pokk again, venturing into the town where they showed him the statue erected for the gods. The old witch leaned over seeing his brother and mate carved into the stone, and closed his eyes as he ran a finger over her image, falling to his knees smiling before he stood and threw off the rags. He transformed to his own form, letting his eyes glow red in front of the foxes in the town as his tails unfurled and spread like a fan behind him. Heimdall laughed as a large fire burned in the center of the town, and watched as Loki danced around, pointing at the moon and laughing with the foxes under the light, singing until the sun rose again. The God of Mischief they had called him, now they called him the God of Miracles too. Unknown to the god who left those he’d taught, he started a fire in them that would reinforce his own laws, and create others as they began to dance around the flames he'd lit….

**Notes; Loki would be considered extremely attractive to a bunch of vixens if he were dancing around and with them. I did not write this out, but the tods in the town of Gosforth were more than happy to accommodate them after he left. The singing hyenas are a reference to sirens and mermaids. Loki curses their species never to sing again and this is why they ‘sing and laugh’ the way they do. The shoes they are wearing and the one they held captive are a reference to The Elves and the Shoemaker. The little home they live in and it being made of straw and dirt, the way Loki changes it to brick is a reference to the three little pigs.**

**Christmas caroling was born from a rather gruesome truth. At a time when people feared opening their doors to strangers, a young girl went missing. Her name was Carol. The search party sang at peoples doors before the Christmas season, using it to ask if they had seen the little girl. She was never found. Later the same thing was used for the poorer mammals to beg for food during the Christmas season. The ‘bird’ Loki cooked was made of fruit and started the tradition of stuffing geese with fruit when they are roasted for the holiday. He can make a lot with his magic, but can’t create anything other than plant life when it comes to this sort of thing.**

**Silver coins being left in the bag around the ashes they were found and the pipe are part of another old Christmas story and refer to stockings hung by the chimney and getting gifts in them; As is Loki going up the chimney when he changes the home to a brick structure.**

**Loki tapping the side of his nose and blowing out the door, coming back through the chimney are references to Santa Claus. In older versions of the story, Santa came through keyholes and the chimney by becoming small, turning to ash and squeezing through cracks. Stockings (Socks) were hung by fireplaces so they could dry each night, as many people couldn’t afford more than one pair. The sweet breads that are left in them are little fruit cakes which is what the vixen makes.**

**The pipe he gives Loki is also another Christmas story, I believe it came from New York. A gift from Saint Nicholas**

**Weaved together are the names of the holiday that will be born. Nicole, Saint claws. Cristopher. “Your parents are saints.”**

**Pinocchio - Occhio means eye and odd**

**Geppetto- the name means he will enlarge, increase, add to, do again; repeat**

**“He can no longer crinkle his nose”- Chris Cringle**

**To be Christopher again, Chris must be merry- Merry Christmas.**

**Heimdall; “ _I am blue! Why am I blue? Will my ears move back? Loki; close-_ _fairly_.” = It’s a reference to the Blue fairy. This is part of why rabbits and hare ears are so far back on their heads.**

**St. Claus was a real guy who made toys he delivered to poor children.**

**The little lizard Loki leaves is a reference to Jiminy cricket and the conscience Pinocchio never had.**

**Sleigh- Every reindeer name is included; It will _dash_ across the snow (Dasher), _dance_ across ice (Dancer), and _prance_ over trees (Prancer). It will _blitzen_ like the stars and be gone in a flash as it flies like a _comet_. It will glide like it has wings from _cupid_ and be the bright _dawn_ (Donner) of knowledge in children before the day your toys are found.” Heimdall scoffed as the foxes looked back to them. “And what will you christen this…ship you leave Loki?” The red fox chuckled as he looked to the side and smirked. “It will be a bright red, trimmed in white to match what the few who have seen you spotted, and move as gracefully as any…. _Vixen.” (Vixen)_ Now Dasher, Now Dancer, Now Prancer and Vixen, On Comet, On Cupid, On Comet and Blitzen. The reindeer names are a reference to the Poem; A Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore.**

**Ljosalfar- Light elves in Norse mythology.**

**Guess who made Santa Claus?!**

**Merry Christmas - Weird ain't it?**


	20. The Black Forest; Pink Elephants

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Black Forest - Pink Elephants  
> Mad As A March Hare, A fly on the wall, the queens cards, spirits and teacups in the ocean

**The Black Forest - Pink Elephants**   
**Mad As A March Hare, A fly on the wall, the queens cards, spirits and teacups in the ocean.**

**Sorry peoples, I haven't located this yet and I'm not sure the title is correct but wanted to leave the space so the story stayed in order, If I find it I'll stick it up here. Was one of my favorites.**

**Nope after trying to rewrite it I have come to the conclusion of the answer I was seeking...Yay-**


	21. Giving Tree

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A very old tradition-

**Giving Tree**

Saint Raven; Petrified

Loki returned to the company of his brother and met with Nason to make a journey to sell all him and the foxes had mined over the last year. Nason looked back and tipped a brow as his paws curled around the cart. The fox walking behind him with the hare had his ears flicking and a lowered gaze as Heimdall let go of the other side. The wolf nodded as he stepped away to let him know he would wait. With the foxes working in the mines they’d pulled so much ore to sell the hare had to help move it to sell. Heimdall stopped as the fox looked around with a deep frown and shook his head. “Loki? You hear it again?”

He snapped his head the buck as he cringed. “You do not hear her?” The hare shook his head as Loki’s ears moved back and forth. “She cries again, almost screaming.”

“Loki, I do not hear anything.” Heimdall’s ears shot up and he turned blinking as Nason raised his brows. “Come, Brother. I do hear something. Perhaps a distraction from whatever it is in your mind.” Heimdall grabbed the cart pulling it to the side, and Loki huffed as he stuck his paws in the ground and grew foliage around it, making it look as if it was nothing other than a large overgrown patch of the woods around them. He followed the hare, trying to distract his mind until his ears perked at the sound of a minstrel strumming as he walked the small path. “YOU! WHERE DID YOU LEARN THAT MUSIC?” Heimdall asked as he hopped forward. The hare in front of him sneered at the wolf and fox, lifting an ax he swung, and let his jaw drop when the fox lowered his brow angrily as it burst into flames. The blade fell from his paw as Loki lowered his head and let his eyes shift from green to red, growling as Heimdall shook his head. “We mean you no harm. We have not heard such music since leaving our lands. We only wished to hear you playing the familiar tunes of our homelands to distract our minds.” Heimdall said as he shook his head.

The hare frowned as he looked at the wolf, the fox and the hare in front of him. “This was not the type of company I wished to call with my music. It cannot be beautiful if it calls demons to my side.”

Loki growled and dipped his head angrily as the other hare glared at him. Heimdall squared his shoulders as rain began to fall in a heavy downpour. The fox stood with the drops sizzling around him, the heat from his own fur burning them away before they had the chance to hit him as Nason ducked under a tree shaking his head. “It is unwise to anger gods.” He muttered as the hare’s ears swiveled to him and eyes shot to the fox and hare in front of him.

The hare laughed as he covered his instrument and rolled his eyes. “The demon is a god? You are a god? You are but a hare like me.”

Heimdall sighed as he lifted his paw to Loki and the fox let his lips drop as he turned his head. “We will provide shelter from the rain and proof for you if you will play for us. We are in need of distraction this night.”

The hare ticked his head to one side and frowned as he glared at Heimdall. “Prove he is a god and not a demon and I will agree.”

Heimdall nodded as he lifted his paws. He built a dome made of ice as Loki lit a fire in the center to keep them warm. The fox stuck his paws in the ground growing fruits and vegetables as the hare took an uneasy seat across from the fox, the wolf, and the hare. He played for hours before Heimdall caught Loki closing his eyes. He turned back to the hare as he picked an apple and shook his Head. “Eating it will come at a price, friend. He offers it as gesture, but it will make you fat.”

The hare laughed as he looked back to the fox and shook his head. “You should kill the thing. No fox is worth anything but the fur they hold to keep mud from our feet.”

Heimdall growled as Nason cringed. “You think so little of them all, when you are rude and do not see the gifts we have both given. Love does not see such things. He is my brother and will be for eternity. Love should not be something one denies any other simply because they are different.”

The hare nodded as he looked up and saw the rain had stopped. He picked up his things and reached for his ax blade, shocked that a new handle had grown into the blade as he looked back to Heimdall. “A gift from the fox you hate. It will never break or burn. He returns it to you better than what he took. Give love freely and remember that this night it was a god, a fox who kept you warm and fed you. Another god sheltered you from his wrath for your insult, a hare who will give love to any who asks of it.” The hare left as the fire kept burning and rushed away with Heimdall’s words locked in his mind. Similar to that of the foxes Loki had left dancing, they were taken…badly and spread through the species in the world.

Heimdall sat up as his ears set and blinked as Loki yawned. Nason tipped his head as the hare grabbed the fox and shook him until he sat up blinking. “Why do you wake me so early?” Loki asked as he wiped the sleep from his eyes.

Heimdall looked around shaking his head. “Mother calls. We must return home.”

“I do not wish to go back.” Loki curled his lip as Heimdall looked at him pleadingly.

“It is our mother who calls us Loki. Something is wrong.” The fox sighed as he stood and stretched. He went back to the cart removing everything around it as Heimdall kept ticking his ears back and forth looking up.

“I will manage.” Nason nodded as he grunted and heaved the cart up as Loki sighed. Heimdall threw his paws up and the wolf shook his head in wonder as he watched the fox and hare rush onto a burning rainbow, walking across it as if it were solid. He turned back to the road as it faded into the sky…

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Their feet hit the ground of Asgard and Loki hit his knees clutching his head. “Loki?”

“By the powers that be, Brother - how can you not hear her screaming! She is so loud here that she drowns out everything!”

Heimdall looked around training his ears in every direction as he shook his head. “I do not hear anything.” He helped the fox up and they walked into Asgard as Loki cringed. The roaring lion was almost a match for what was ringing in his ears as Freya rushed to them and pulled them to Idun’s garden. Loki let his paws drop as Heimdall stood in shock. Freya cupped a paw over muzzle shaking her head as she sobbed and Idun sat staring into nothing. The trees that had grown for eons of years were fading to a dark grey. Loki stepped in with his jaw hanging open as many of them withered and turned to ash that blew away, while others seemed to lock in place and turn to stone. Completely petrified as the color faded away. Odin roared as he stormed to the fox and Loki looked up at him bewildered as he growled. “YOU! YOU ARE THE CAUSE OF THIS!”

Loki frowned and curled his lip, nearly exposing his teeth as his father clenched his fists. “I cannot kill trees! I was not even here!”

“THEY WERE DYING BEFORE YOU LEFT! HUGINN AND MUNINN HAVE VANISHED! YOU DO NOT THINK IT COINCIDENCE THE TREES FINALLY PERISH, ALL ON THE SAME DAY YOU RETURN?!” The fox looked back at Freya and bit his lip as he tipped his ears back. He said nothing to indicate his mother was the only reason he’d returned and fought not to cup his paws over his ears as the wailing he kept hearing grew so loud he could barely hear his father screaming.

“YOUR BROTHER SHALL NOT OPEN ANY MORE BRIDGES FOR YOU UNTIL THIS IS SOLVED! THE BEAST WILL KILL US! YOU HAVE AIDED THE CREATURE IN DESTROYING US ALL!”

Loki growled as he clamped his claws into his fists. “WHAT CREATURE? I KNOW OF NO BEAST?!”

“A beast who steals our life forces, one that lives in darkness and hides from justice. A cruel creature who kills its own. You will not use the bridges any longer until you have helped resolve a problem you helped to create!”

“I KNOW NOTHING OF A BEAST! YOU BLAME ME FOR THIS? I AM TO BE KEPT PRISONER HERE?!”

Odin growled as he shook his head. “I took the knowledge, memories and wisdom from the gods when I returned and found them dying after the battle I chased you though. Those left went willingly into the Ozaruki to save themselves. You will stay only because I believe you know something of this, and are responsible, you will find a way to fix it!!”

The lion stormed off as Loki curled his lip and looked back to Heimdall as the hare looked back at their mother. Freya let her head fall as she walked away. She tipped her ears and turned at the sound of rustling, looking up at the raven that sat perched in a tree. “Grace. What can I do to help with this? My family is falling apart.”

The raven tipped its head before swooping in front of her and shifting to a shadow that swirled to an aged vixen. “If there are many tumblers in a lock and each must move together in a certain order to open the door, none can move with a lost piece. The door cannot open without the tumblers being in place. No one should know the future, for if you define it, you take away the possibility of choice. No living soul has ever seen between the veil that lies between life and death, and someone lost can only be replaced by one and eight.”

The wolf curled her brow, shaking her head. “A riddle? Nine? There are ten gods still outside the Ozaruki. That does not help me, Grace.”

“The sands of time shift and turn. A single grain can tip the scales and the weight can be held only in the eye of the beholder. Two will become one and something beautiful will grow where once, only one thing should have been, three and the world becomes larger and expands the possibility for hope. For if there is no hope, there will _never be a land_ to return to.”

Freya shook her head as the vixen fell into the shadows and faded into darkness. The wolf ticked her eyes around before they shot back to the shadows. “Never be a land? The eye of the beholder….Heimdall? Sands of time… GRACE?! DOES THAT MEAN WHAT I THINK IT MEANS?!” Freya left, lost in her own thoughts as Odin cringed and ran to the tree of life, calling the others who still remained to join him.

Heimdall jerked as Loki hissed and hit his knees, cupping his paws around his ears. The hare dipped lower when Loki looked up at him growling as his eyes watered from the sound. “He cannot keep me here. I may not be able to use the bridges Heimdall, and I will not go against what he has set but I will find this wailing if it is the last thing I do! I have other ways to leave Asgard, Brother.”

Heimdall sighed as Loki stumbled from the gardens and shook his head as kept clutching his ears. The fighting between them only worsened over time and Loki became more and more obsessed with the voice only he could hear.

Heimdall walked to the center of Asgard looking for a distraction and his face fell as he looked over the tree of life. The hare stumbled back as a crack opened the ground it sat on and the tree split before he stumbled again, rushing to find his brother after alerting Freya. Loki followed Heimdall back to the tree where Freya watching as Odin examined it. Her eyes glazed over as she placed a paw on it and looked back to them shaking her head. “We have tried everything. Can you do anything?” she asked as she looked between them. Loki curled his brow as he stuck a paw on the tree and let his eyes drop to the roots as Odin shook his head growling.

Heimdall tipped a brow as the fox stuck his paws in the ground and closed his eyes. Loki looked back to him with glowing eyes and sighed. “Brother, can you freeze it? Encase it in ice so the crack does not grow? I will set a fire within it that will keep it alive, protect it from the cold and cover the eggs with gold so neither will affect them. As long as the flames burn and the roots are warmed, the tree will live.” Heimdall looked back to their parents as Loki looked between them waiting. Freya nodded and the hare took a breath as he stood back, holding up his paws before ice started curling around the trunk of the tree. Loki closed his eyes and made the ground warm, heating the roots as the branches crested over with ice. The eggs on the tree looked as if gold was pouring from their stems as it encased each one, hanging from strands as a small flame lit above each egg like an ornament that would keep them warm. The ice glistened like glitter over the branches as light danced around the gold and ice from the flames. Heimdall stood looking it over as Freya and the others stepped back covering their mouths.

“It is beautiful.” Freya whispered as she looked it over. Ten gods stayed around the tree of life as an aged vixen watched from the shadows. Grace took a deep breath and closed her eyes as Odin growled. The she wolf turned, curling her lip up as she lowered her head. She kept her voice low but let her lips vibrate as Odin tipped his brow. “You will not destroy this moment. Not when Loki and Heimdall are the reason the tree still lives! Why are you-” she growled.

Odin looked around seeing the other gods gawking at the tree and lowered his voice. “Why? Because after I hung myself on the tree and spoke with the fates, I knew Loki is the one who will cause the end of all.”

“You will cause the end of all if you believe you can change Fate! Do not destroy what little is left of this family Odin!” She growled silently.

He nodded as he raised his head. “A feast! We will have a feast to come together on this day!” Freya closed her eyes as Loki and Heimdall examined the tree, while the others all tipped their heads high enough to look over the top where the largest flame sat, burning like a star…..

**Notes; Cryptic much- very. Here ya go, clues-**

“If there are many tumblers in a lock and each must move together in a certain order to open the door, none can move with a lost piece. The door cannot open without the tumblers being in place. No one should know the future, for if you define it, you take away the possibility of choice. No living soul has ever seen between the veil that lies between life and death, and someone lost can only be replaced by one and eight.” One plus eight = nine.

**There is a living soul who can see beyond the veil between life and death, (not into the veil) if someone lets him look. He cannot see beyond death, but he can see into their next lives, which should not be possible. Heimdall swallowed the eye of Odin. The eye held something else that is the reason he can do this, a grain of times sand that also made Heimdall a Fate. What will open an unlocked door is vital- but not the point of opening it.**

The wolf curled her brow, shaking her head. “A riddle? Nine? There are ten gods still outside the Ozaruki. That does not help me, Grace.”

**Some numbers are critical and in the world of foxes everything has more than one meaning. This has many and is directly related to the prophecies of the scrolls of Odin.**

“The sands of time shift and turn. A single grain can tip the scales and the weight can be held only in the eye of the beholder. Two grains and something beautiful will grow where once, only one thing should have been, three and the world becomes larger and expands the possibility for hope. For if there is no hope, there will never be a land to return to.”

Freya shook her head as the vixen fell into the shadows and faded into darkness. The wolf ticked her eyes around before they shot back to the shadows. “Never be a land? The eye of the beholder…. Sands of time… GRACE?! DOES THAT MEAN WHAT I THINK IT MEANS?!”

**Sands of Time= Father time and Mother Grace (One person who shifts forms between a raven, a vixen and an old mammal) also holds the sands of time.**

**One- Eye of the beholder- Heimdall swallowed the eye of Odin and is in love with Sigyn.**

**Two- Something will grow where only once one thing should have been- Sigyn grew inside a seed of from a single grain of times sand. A seed of life and sand.**

**Three- the world becomes larger and expands. Loki Heimdall and Sigyn will become the reason the world grows and changes. No god has ever lived a mortal life, they will expand from their original confines.**

“…there will never be a land to return to.” **Neverland**

**The brothers Grimm tale here is about a man who plays music and attracts a wolf, a fox and a hare. His magic instrument attracted them and he did not want their company. They were chased away by another who held an ax. In this story, Freya gave the world music.**

**Loki growing plants. The reason he can do this on Earth is simple. He is magical, but he was created from the moon, the father who left part of himself with the Earth so all life grew. The reason he can do this so quickly is because of his fire. When he sticks his paws into the ground, the heat accelerates life under the Earth and causes anything in the area to grow faster.**

**Tree of life: gold hanging eggs, glittered with ice, (Heimdall’s eggs and ice) a flame above each one, the largest burning at the top like a star. (Loki’s fire. Before there were electric lights this was how a tree was lit at Christmas. Fire hazard) = Heimdall and Loki trying to keep the tree of life alive create the first of its kind. The tree of life is the first Christmas tree.**

**Merry Christmas**

**One; Odin is the first god, he is where everything started. One and Eight- Loki is the first subspecies to be created by Odin and Freya outside the original Nine. Loki is also One. He is also the first and only god to birth and sire children in the ‘traditional’ fashion. His first ‘mate’ in this story was not another god, she was the Lady of the Cliffs. Heimdall is the ninth god created. An eight turned sideways becomes an infinity symbol- a symbol of Time. Heimdall is a Fate. One plus eight = Nine. Loki and Heimdall are the key to solving the problem. Loki is also the tenth god created. In rabbit culture, ten is the greatest number, for it represents the Divine and is the first two-digit number and represents higher thinking in mathematics. Sigyn was more than a god. She had significant power, but it was only revealed once what her true power really was as she never knew where she came from. She was born from a single piece of fruit. A seed that was planted and grew from father time placing a single grain of his sand within it. _(A single grain of sand can tip the scales.)_ Father time changed himself into Mother age/growing old with Grace. Grace is Sigyn's mother _and_ father. Time is also darkness and the ability to pull it away from living souls because time also causes death. Father time (The raven) talks about being in love and taking the one he loves gifts even though he can never be with her. He takes her the souls that he reaps because he is also death, he removes the darkness from the souls before returning them to her so she never knows the darkness in the worlds she has created. He wants her to stay pure and innocent. He is in love with the spark of creation. (Darkness and light- light created time where once only darkness lived. Darkness became time because of light.) The ‘creature’ (Spark of creation) that cast light into the darkness and gave time form through the living mammals it created, hands, face, purpose. (A clock face and hands) All souls are returned to the spark and can join with her where they can become ‘Divine’. I know that a lot of people would think about Heimdall and Loki having purple and green eyes and lay that onto Nick and Judy. The fact that a god had the first set of purple eyes is significant, but- Eww- just stop- the color of someone's eyes can change through each generation when the soul is reincarnated… Grace only has Loki’s soul _one time,_ she cannot change what Odin has done and Loki lives through thousands of miserable mortal lives before she intervenes and moves him into the last mortal life he has.**

**When Loki returned to the town of Gosforth he spends the night dancing with the foxes under the moon. Heimdall tells this hare to give love freely. Both these lessons are misinterpreted and cause significant problems. Not everything they are teaching is taken correctly. It’s why Foxes don’t dance because the fire Loki started with the foxes led to kits being born without fathers and is the part of the reason they adopted the idea that foxes mate for life and are faithful, and banned dancing within the species. Hares become synonymous with sleeping around. The mythical Jackelope shouldn’t exist- neither should the only species on the planet that comes from two species being able to reproduce. Domesticated rabbits and hares can reproduce. The species is known as Jackelopes in Zootopia. Jackelope also has another meaning in Zootopia as on the rare occasion a hare will marry a rabbit- they often run away from the rabbits family and elope because it is not an accepted practice and their offspring are considered…well they aren’t openly accepted.**

**Ugh- missing chapter about the bar and the Jackelope (When Loki decrees that no fox shall ever consume alcohol if it isn’t made of fruit instead of grain after he gets drunk from the spirits - because he sees pink elephants. They're playing cards and the others are cheating, he turns himself into a fly on the wall to watch and calls them on it after he returns - the people chase them from the bar and Loki turns them into playing cards. He shrinks them and sticks them in cups before tossing them into the ocean because they offer him a vixen as an apology and he is not happy) Lost when Liam downloaded Windows 10-**


	22. Loki's Song

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We all have a voice in our head-

**Loki’s Song**

Katelyn Tarver; You don’t know what it’s like

“Fools that you all be! Damned fools that you believe this will all be a venture to save an end! For all things end!”

Odin stood squaring his shoulders as he frowned heavily. “You are here only for the love of a brother who asked for you, or I would have cast you out already! Not even your own children stand with you!”

Loki growled as he dipped his head, nine tails lashing around behind him as he clenched his fists. “My children are dead! You took them from me and I believe you took her! She could not have just disappeared!”

The lion roared as Idun dipped her head sobbing. “WELP! Leave our presence. You do nothing but upset the siblings you have left and your mother is sick with worry and grief over the loss of all our children and your mate!”

“A LOSS YOU CAUSED!” Loki spat as Heimdall pulled him back again.

“I caused this!? I caused it?! It was you who brought your damned treasures back to Asgard against my wishes. It was you who ran and mated with that foul lizard from the world! The wars here began because of them! Because of you! I set to destroy the darkness in the world and you brought it here! Now we die because we starve, and it may not have happened had those treasures you refused to leave were not here!”

Heimdall whispered lowly as the red fox sobbed. “Loki, this is futile. There is no point hurling insult upon anyone when it will do no good and make no change in deaf ears.” 

“All my children, all of them are nothing but fodder to all of you! You changed my sons to wolves and we watched as one tore the other apart! You threw him to the world to be alone! The Valkyries were treasures and if you cannot see it - that every child is a treasure, I hope there is a hell where you find yourselves after what you did to all of them! All children are treasures, no matter what they look like or how they come to be and I lost my mate- My Sigyn- because her heart broke watching it!”

“Treasures! Abominations! Those things you birthed were not of any species known to this world or any other and even cutting off their tails only split them into two more species! They brought lust and greed into Asgard!”

“THEY DID WHAT WAS ASKED OF THEM- SET BY YOUR LAW- THEY GAVE BACK WHAT WAS GIVEN TO THEM!”

Odin growled. “Your sons and daughters were never meant to be. A wolf larger than any creature known to Asgard, a serpent so massive he took up the waters of the world, and a daughter who breathed hells fires and disease! The Valkyries were no better, not even being able to be classified as one of my original nine or a subspecies of them! You allowed that thing to change you! Their birth was unnatural and they did not belong here, no more than the creatures that birthed or fathered them! “

Loki face sank as his father’s words settled in his chest. “Unnatural?” He growled as he leaned closer to his father curling his lips over his teeth. “Tell them what the fairy dust is and then speak of unnatural again.”

Odin looked around watching their ears perk and roared. “NEVER SPEAK OF IT AGAIN! IT IS THE NATURAL WAY OF ALL THINGS!”

Loki snarled as his fur puffed out. “WHAT IS NATURAL ABOUT HOW YOU LIVE! HOW WE ALL CAME TO BE?! WE EXIST OUTSIDE OF WHAT IS! YOU LIVE BY FEEDING FROM THOSE WHO ARE LOST! I DO NOT! I WILL NOT TAKE PARTS OF THOSE WHO HAVE LOST THEIR WAY AND USE IT AS IF IT WERE MEANT TO MAKE ME LIVE FOREVER! NO LIFE IS MEANT TO LIVE FOREVER! HOW ARE YOU ANY BETTER WHEN DOING THIS?! YOU CHANGED OUR SONS, LET THEM FIGHT TO THE DEATH AND MADE ME AND MY MATE WATCH! YOU ARE A HYPOCRITE AND NO POWER YOU HAVE WILL EVER CHANGE IT!”

Odin stood growling as his fists clenched and roared loud enough that Asgard shook. Loki stood letting his nine tails whip angrily behind him as Heimdall tried to pull at him again. “Brother, please.”

Loki threw his brother away as fiery tears stained his face and the fur on his chest, hissing at the hare. “Why did you bring me back here, Heimdall? Why did you not just let him kill me? That is all he knows! Death is all he knows!” He growled before he stormed from the dining room where his remaining siblings and parents sat.

Odin sat back at his seat and looked at Freya scowling. The she wolf dipped her ears as she looked at Heimdall. The hare took a seat watching the door before looking back to his mother as she raised both worried brows. “No magic I have can heal what ails him.”

Odin growled lowly as he looked around at all the solemn faces in the room. “You all have pity for him? After all he has done? After the insults he has hurled on us, at this dinner that we are meant to gather as the last of a family in hopes to come together again?”

“He is not the only one in the wrong, love.” Freya frowned as she looked at him.

The lion curled his lip as he looked around the table. Idun sat with her trunk curled into her chin, Tyr had a lowered brow and clenched Jaw, Baldur’s eyes were damp, Heimdall cast his eyes to the side, Thor lifted his head as his face relaxed while Vale and Frigg both kept their heads dipped low. “What would you have me do? I would not allow the damnable creatures back even if I could. They are mortal now. I cannot change what has been done, nor what he has done. I cannot change the past!”

“You know who can.” Freya stated as she sat straighter. The lion curled his lip as he looked around and watched all his children turn their eyes from him as he stood.

“FATHER TIME!” Odin bellowed as he stood and straightened his back. The doors blew open as a thick gust of wind ruffled all their fur and a shadow swooped in, landing in a darkened corner before it shifted. The lion curled his lip as he shook his head. He ticked his eyes to Heimdall and the hare looked away as he frowned heavily. “You have changed your form. Why?”

The figure billowed above the table before a thick robe fell and he curled his lip as a red vixen appeared in front of him, lifting her head in a regal fashion. She wore a dark robe made of deep space, sparkling with the stars that swirled around in it. On her nose a pair of glasses rested, made from an hourglass, half filled with sand in each section. A small bubble rested in the center where another small area raised above her nose also held sand. On her shoulder sat a clock with the hands of time, one red, one black and one gray, each indicating the hour, minute, and seconds. Her eyes were filled with the cosmos and planets. A pendulum swung at her chest that held the moon, rocking back and forth as the sun sat on her shoulder. The vixen curled her lip and narrowed her eyes. “I changed my form an eon ago and you have just now seen it. The great Odin pays no attention to the things that surround him? I am not bound by any conformities you have set, God.”

Odin stood with pursed lips and narrowed his eyes at the belittling tone of her voice. “Where is Sigyn?” he growled as she let her feet hit the table.

The vixen tipped an angry brow at him as she bore her teeth. “Death comes to all. I am merely the collector of it. I am Grace.”

The large cat looked back watching Freya turn her head as she bit her lip. “Bring her back.”

The vixen tipped her head to Odin frowning, and growled. “Not even a God can bring one back from death. Your request is fruitless if you believe I have such power. You should consider where my power comes from. I cannot change death, I cannot change the past unless the one I speak to would listen, and you would not.” She tipped her ears as Idun sobbed and let her lips vibrate as Odin screamed.

“I WILL ASK THAT CREATURE FOR NOTHING!”

“And I shall see to it you have nothing in return. I have seen your path, Odin. It will end with death no matter what you believe you overcome if you do not change your mind on this course of action.” She swirled above the table, becoming a waft of dark air before it rushed back through the doors it had come through.

“FATHER TIME! GRACE!” he slammed his fists to the table as the doors slammed, and roared again as he fell back to his chair. “I will not die to that damn creature!” Freya tipped her ears as Heimdall dipped his head lower and turned the other way. The lion sat rigid in his chair, growling before the buck looked back at him frowning. “You are his tenth tail. Why do you not speak!”

Heimdall looked at his mother grinding his teeth. “It is your curse that keeps me from speaking father. Your curse that I watched the one I loved the most die without being able to interfere. The agreement I made to obtain the knowledge from the waters of knowledge under the tree of life keeps me silent with all the truth I have swallowed held in your own eye.”

“SPEAK OR BE DAMNED!”

Heimdall looked at his mother and clenched his jaw as she nodded. “Loki has gone mad. He claims to hear Sigyn’s voice weeping constantly, yet I hear nothing and I hear all. I see no path because I cannot see his.”

The lion growled as he leaned towards the hare who glared at him. “No riddles. Speak or you will wish the curse I placed on you is what I place upon you again. I will damn you to Eternity!”

The hare grimaced in a deep angry face as he kept his teeth clenched. “If he dies, there is no future. All I see is darkness and nothing more. I can tell you nothing else without him letting me see his path and nothing you could do would be so cruel as what you have already gifted me, Father. I am already damned.” He stood from the table, shoving his chair back before he stormed from the room, throwing the door open angrily and let it slam into the wall as his siblings stared in shock.

Odin fell back to his chair shaking his head as he looked around growling. “I wish to save life and all I get in return from my family is…. This…...?”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Heimdall rushed back to Loki’s Den and looked around wondering where he’d gotten to again. Instead of finding the red fox stumbling around and searching for an unheard voice, he found nothing. He walked through Asgard listening and couldn’t catch the sound of his brother anywhere before he stopped at a stream and sat on the bank, sticking his toes in the water. “You never were good at hide and seek, Loki.” A large fish in the stream slapped its fin against the water, sending a wave over his head. He threw his paws up and looked back to the fish grinning before his face fell as his eyes trained on it. “This isn’t good for you Brother, being alone like this all the time.” The fish stayed in the water, staring blankly as its fins backed it away from Heimdall. The buck blinked and sighed. “I asked for you, you know.” The hare squinted as the fish squirt a jet of water in his face shook his head chuckling.

“I thought you would drive me crazy for a long time. I wish there was something I could do to help. I don’t hear it, Loki. I have tried. You have to let her go, Brother.” The fish did a quick turn and swam away as the hare let his ears drop. “I know you think I don’t know what it’s like, that I don’t know how you feel, but, I loved her too.” He whispered as his head dropped. “I can’t lose both of you.” The buck jerked his head up as something brushed his foot and snickered as the fish nibbled on his toes. Heimdall shook his head as he smiled. “Love you too, Brother.” He jolted as a wave of water flew over his head after the fish jumped out of the water and slammed into it again. The hare deadpanned the water as several large bubbles came from the fish before it turned again. “Still finding a way to create some happiness? Always the trickster, Loki?” he asked as he shook his head. “Even in these dark days you have a way to make light. You will be alright.”

The hare shot from the ground as the fish rose from the water and shifted into a wolf, his red eyes filled with sorrow as Heimdall fought his own tears. The wolf shifted to a serpent, the serpent to a giant, the giant to a fox. Heimdall let his lips tremble as his brother shifted to a shape that had the red eyes the fox God bore pouring into the water _she_ stood in. Loki stumbled forward and fell out of the shape of his lost mate before dark wings shot from his arms. His fur disappeared from the wings and leathery skin covered the surface. His face returned to that of his own before he slammed them down and shot into the air, howling in a sorrowful tone that would leave even a wolf in agony. Heimdall could only bite back the pain in his chest as he watched his brother shift to the form of a raven, before his silhouette disappeared into the sky. The hare closed his eyes letting go of his own flooding emotions as he fell back to the ground and covered his eyes.

“Time heals all wounds, Heimdall.”

His ears shot up as Grace stood beside him and the hare looked up at her shaking his head. “Not even you can heal this, Grace. This will never change if there is nothing you can do. Even he knows this if he took your shape. I believe he hates you.”

“Time is not always a friend when it is all you have and reminds you of what has been lost. Keep your head up little one, and be patient.”

“PATIENT?!” Heimdall screamed as she tipped her head in understanding. “What lesson can we learn from this?! There is nothing I can say to him, nothing I can do for him. You don’t know what this is like for either of us! What will ever change this? What will ever make it better? He has stopped trying! He wants for nothing! The kind of nothing that created all of us! He has stopped fighting! Our father is so proud he cannot see Loki is dying, or simply does not care and Loki is not alright! He will never be alright!!”

She nodded as he grit his teeth through bleary eyes and staggered breaths. “Perhaps the Gods do give more than some can handle. I have no power over free will, Heimdall. I am only a whisper on the wind and am a choice to be made. I can offer nothing but that to him, or you.”

The hare let his ears drop as he looked back to the sky. “Then keep your whispers for him, Grace. He already has another voice in his head and ears. Your words will do me no good when I can hear everything and he will not even listen to a voice in front of him. I cannot hear what it is that tortures him. As much as I hurt, as much as I ache for my heart, for his, I have not lost nearly as much. But I know this may be the death of both of us if it kills him, because I am not strong enough to lose anymore.”

“As you wish.” The vixen bowed her head slightly and he watched as the solid state she’d taken faded into a wistful shadow and fled into the wind shifting to the shape of black wings. Heimdall sat for thousands of years, looking beyond the rainbow bridge and listening to his brother searching through the realms for a voice no one heard. Until the day he heard no more and sought to find his brother again……….

**Notes; Christmas is a time for family to gather- it’s not always a great thing when old wounds can cause everyone to be on edge or start fighting or people are missing from the celebration. (Don’t worry still a happy ending) There is a dinner in the Prose Edda that tells of Loki going to the banquet and insulting all the other Gods. This is the story Rose spoke of when she tried to explain to Nick why his father was sick and had a broken heart. Heimdall was said to be the Guardian of Asgard's Gates and protected everything within it from threats. Again, Loki had a way of sneaking in and out without Heimdall being able to figure out how he kept doing it. The part of him changing into a fish is a reference to the story of Baldur, his brother who he tricked another God into killing with a mistletoe thorn. When Loki ran from the Gods after they realized he was the cause of Baldur's death he transformed himself into a fish and hid in a stream.**


	23. Sorrow Of The Divine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No One can be alone forever-

****

**Sorrow of Divine**

K’NAAN; Is There Anybody Out There

Loki stole through each realm and when the wailing he heard had nearly driven him insane, he made his way back to the secret lair he held away from Asgard and curled into his own fur as he clutched his paws to his ears. "Please! Give me peace, Sigyn! Forgive me and let me hear you scream no more….!"

"It is not her you hear, Loki."

The red fox pulled his paws away from his head, flicking his ears as his brow lowered looking around through the darkness and growled. "Go away! You are no friend of mine to have taken her from me!"

"I am your friend, Loki. I will always be your friend, little one."

"THEN BRING HER BACK!"

"You know I do not have that power."

He growled again as he bit back tears. "THEN BE GONE FROM ME! I HEAR HER SCREAMING IN AGONY! THE LEAST YOU COULD DO AS MY FRIEND IS TAKE ME TO HER!"

The vixen sighed as she seated herself on the floor. The red fox rose from his lowered position to match her as she shook her head. "Loki, you could bewitch a snake charmer if you wished it." He scowled at her as she looked away. "But you are killing me, seeing everything you once stood for lost to this darkness, when I have seen you overcome it so many times."

"She was my mate! My true mate!" He snarled as she kept her eyes locked on him. "I have lost all my children and my true mate. THERE IS NOTHING BUT DARKNESS, AND I HAVE SOUGHT HER OUT IN EVERY DEPTH OF IT! WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE OF ME? WOULD MY BLOOD BE ENOUGH?! WHAT DO I NEED TO DO TO GET SOME MERCY FROM YOU?"

The vixen shook her head as she stood. "If you wish to spill your own blood, it will not be on my conscience. God of Misery - you do not wish to live but fear death. If you cannot find the voice in the shadows, then perhaps, God of Mischief, Masks, the Moon, you should seek what you wish to find somewhere other than the darkness."

His ears perked as she tilted her head. "Somewhere other than the darkness?"

She huffed as she shook and deadpanned him. "Are you going to let this consume you, believing it is Sigyn you hear, even when I have told you it is not? Your mate was not born like any other in existence."

"What do you know of her birth?" he asked as he narrowed his eyes. "Or how she came to be? Perhaps you know of her death more than any other."

"Do you believe I do not know the inflection of your words, Loki? I can tell you nothing other than death finds all those who live, and she is not lost. No soul is ever lost." The vixen lifted a brow with a condescending glare as he rolled his eyes.

"Then prove it! Tell me how to find this wailing so I can know it is not my mate suffering, and that I have not caused her to be in such agony!"

"Loki, no living being has ever gone into the light. I do not know what it will do to you, if- you can survive it."

The red fox stood defiantly as he turned a shoulder on her. "It would be better than listening to a siren who drives me mad! Not even Heimdall can hear her! Yet you know who she is? Where she is?"

"I cannot go, Loki. Darkness cannot live in the light. There are no shadows there for me to find, no corner I can be in that would shield me from… her. What will you do when you find this wailing siren you seek?"

"I will shut her damnable screaming up! And try to find out why the hell I am the only one who hears her wailing! I want to know why she tries to drive me insane in my own sorrow!"

The vixen giggled as he dropped his brow on her. "That is a simple enough question to answer, God of Mystery. Let me help you with it. A simple little riddle, that no other in existence may understand. What have you lost, what do you seek? What will you find, when you are the weak? What will find you when you no longer look, what will be missing from your life’s story book?"

Loki growled in frustration as he slammed both paws to his head groaning again. "Just tell me how to find her!"

Grace bowed her head as she lifted her arms. "You have much darkness in you Loki, but not the kind I hold or what I am. The dark magic you have learned from the lady of the cliffs, the things your mother taught you, the magic the giants placed within your body when they tried to change you, the way the lady of the cliffs changed you, you must pull them all together and combine them with my darkness. I will flee when she arrives, for I cannot stand in her light. And it will be up to you to find a way to survive her or keep her hidden. I must warn you, Loki. She is unlike any other creature in existence. She knows no lies, knows nothing but what she is and what she has been. She has no masks and will not understand if you try to be anything other than what she sees and hears."

"That is not possible, Grace. No one can be so…."

The vixen looked him over and lowered her brow as she narrowed her eyes. "I do not lie. You of all should know, I know all, see all. I chose this form for a reason and have kept it since you asked for my help teaching your brother Thor that he was not invincible. You wanted him to know this to keep him safe because you knew if he did not understand it, he would get himself killed. An old male or an old female, does it matter which I am, or that I am now a fox when I still have no reason to lie? There are no secrets from me. I am what I am and will be as I choose to be for Eternity."

"You were only a shadow before then, an old raven you sometimes still become. You have reason to do this Grace, and have had since before that happened haven't you, Vixen?" He tipped his head and narrowed his eyes looking at her as she squared her shoulders.

"I have no power over free will. I cannot change a choice someone makes. I can only hope they can hear if I try to change their minds, Loki. I can influence someone and make suggestions, nothing more. What you do, what others do, I cannot change. I have no power over the way a life unfolds."

"But you have it over death?" He asked as he curled his lip and watched as her head hung.

"No, I do not. I am only the thing that causes it, so I will not leave any soul to the darkness. I can lead them to the light and nothing more."

"You lead them to the…they see you as the reaper? When you are the guardian of souls?"

Grace sighed as she looked the other way. "We have many faces, and many names."

The red fox smirked as he looked back at her and flicked his ears up. "I have managed to influence even you? Oh, my father will love that."

"He did not, and it was just as much your mate who influenced me." She smirked back before they smiled widely at each other. The vixen kept her thoughts to herself as she watched the red fox gathering several things, until he stopped in front of a large pedestal bowl in the center of the room.

"Since you took the form of a fox for a reason, a considerable amount of time ago, I suspect you will not be telling me why it is she screams, or why you are invested?"

The vixen folded her arms over her chest and shook her head. Loki shook his head chuckling as he threw several things in the basin and closed his eyes as he raised his paws. "Wait." He looked back at her with a tipped brow as she reached into her robe and watched the vixen dig through it with her tongue stuck out as she searched. The fox chuckled as the sand in the glasses on her nose shifted in the hourglass that made them. "I have something for you that may help."

She pulled out an object and handed it to him. His lips curled up looking at it. "What is this? What is it made of?" He sniffed it, curling his brow as she laughed.

"They are called sunglasses and are made of plastic. Here." She unfolded them and he tilted his head back while she placed them over his eyes.

"Strange," he said as he opened his eyes and shook his head. "They make the world darker. What magic makes the whole world appear darker? Plastic? Why would anyone need such a thing and where did you get it?"

"They are not magic. What matters is that they may help. These are the darkest ones I could find. They are called Aviators." She said as he took them off awkwardly and gave her a disbelieving glance.

"I suppose there is no irony in the fact that they are named after a flyer and your first form was a flyer?" he asked snarkily as he rolled his eyes.

The vixen shrugged and smirked as Loki stuck one earpiece in his belt, letting them dangle from his waist. "Loki," she said sternly as he raised his paws and glanced at her. "Remember my words. She is a complete innocent. She has never seen the worlds or any kind of darkness that may live within them."

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Heimdall sat for thousands of years, looking beyond the rainbow bridge and listening to his brother searching through the realms for a voice no one heard. Until the day he heard no more and sought to find him again…

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Loki looked around and curled his brow. His ears pinned to his head as he flinched. "What have you done to my home?"

"I have hidden us and your Den in a realm between the worlds, where there is no sound." The red fox glared at her as his ears perked.

"Then why can I still hear her?!"

Grace rolled her eyes. "Let me respeak that. No sound can leave this realm. You can still hear it if you are here."

Loki stared at her before his eyes ticked to the side. "Heimdall cannot hear anything here? What is this place?”

“We are at the edge of Eternity. A place where nothing is real and I can move between the realms. It is not really a place, more like an intersection between everything that is, has ever been, or will ever be.”

She shook her head as Loki chuckled. "Grace, I believe you should always have been a fox, not that shadowed old bird.”

"Yes, yes," she smirked as he snickered and waved a paw at the basin between them. "Get on with it." The red fox laughed as he raised his paws again.

Days, weeks, months passed as Heimdall searched and found nothing. In the darkness of where Grace had pulled Loki, the fox fell to his knees as his muscles ached and he panted heavily as he looked to her with exhaustion in his eyes.

"I cannot do any more. I cannot find her!"

"Quit? Since when do you quit, Loki? You have always found a way, with your words or with your misdirection, with your faces and masks, changing your form, using magic to misguide all around you. How is this any different?"

"I do not know how to reach it, how to make her stop! I have used everything I have!"

"Why do you seek it? This sound, when I have told you it is not what you wish to find!"

"To silence it! To hear it no longer!"

"WHY DO YOU SEEK THE SOUND!?" She growled as she bore her teeth in the darkness and dipped her head. His red eyes looked up at her from where he’d fallen and glazed over as she lowered her brow. "What have you lost, what do you seek?!"

"I have lost everything! I seek silence! Silence from the worlds! Silence from the voices in my head! Silence from the failure I have become. Silence from my own sorrow, silence from the memories of all I cannot forget!"

"What will you find when you are the weak?" She asked as he tried to pull his eyes back to her.

"PAIN! Pain in knowing that no matter how hard I tried I was not good enough for any of them! Not for my father, my mother, my brother, my siblings! Not for my children and not for my mate!" He screamed as he growled and curled his brow trying to keep from sobbing.

She looked at him with sorrow in her eyes as his head fell to the floor and lowered her voice. "What will you find when you no longer look, what will be the missing story in your life’s story book?"

The red fox looked at her and curled his lip as his eyes spilled over in streaks of flames. "I find the thing I do not want. I find life and breath still in me. I find the loneliness that consumes me each day and walk in a darkness that not even you could compare to, Grace."

The vixen met his eyes as hers were overcome with a dampness she’d never known. "And for my first un- born child, I will show her true mate the way."

Loki looked back to her with fire streaming down his face as she tipped her head and smiled sadly. "Your first un-…Sigyn was your daughter? ... Your only child. The vixen found in fruit, grown from a seed and a single grain of your san…." his breath caught as her eyes swelled over, tracking down her cheeks. "I have failed yet another, Grace. This will be the story not in my book. That no one will know of. That Agony has found my name yet again and will be the thing that drives me past the edge of the worlds."

"You did not fail her, or me. You are already past the edge of the worlds, Loki. Why do you seek to silence the voice you hear?" She asked as she brushed his cheek. He shook his head curling his face, no longer fighting the stream of emotions leaving him. "What made her your true mate, when there had been others?"

The fox's chest jostled as she cradled his head. "Heimdall. I loved her, but when I took my mother’s necklace and refused to return it…He took her from me. Stole her and hid her away. In the moment I found her gone I knew nothing in any realm…any world…anywhere, would be worth as much to me…as her. Nothing else mattered."

"But why do you seek to silence this voice you hear?" she asked softly as his head curled into her shoulder. The red fox clutched her robes in his paws as he wailed…

"BECAUSE I FEEL IT! It is as if the sound amplifies all I cannot escape, all I wish I could still hold, all I wish to forget! It is inescapable and drives me to the edge! This is all I can handle, Grace! Knowing I am the cause of the loss of your only child! I do not deserve even a friend like you. Forgive me! I have stolen so much by hiding it and now I cannot hide from anything! I have failed her! I have failed everyone. I have even failed you!" he fell to his knees in front of her as she cupped his chin, pulling his eyes to hers again.

"You will fail Loki, if you do not try. For not trying is the only failure…."

"I cannot try again! I cannot do this anymore. I have nothing left to lose."

"Then you have truly failed Loki, and you are lost, for my daughter would not believe you were capable of quitting. If you haven't the strength to keep faith for her, you are only what you believe yourself to be, to you and her. We all exist, in the shadow of our failures if that is all we choose to see." The vixen turned and vanished into the darkness as he looked around. Staggered breaths left him as he shook and he found his way to his feet.

"Grace! Please! I can't stay here! There is no one else here! I will go mad in the silence of her screaming!”

''Then find yourself. No one is ever alone, Loki. There are no masks here, there is no mischief, there is no misdirection. There will be no misunderstandings within the chaos that is order. It simply is. This is the mystery you wished to solve, only your misery can trick you here. Nine realms, ten tails, if you do not belong in your land, you will never belong to any other. Those who do not try only know the never, when the answer is for- ever.”

Her hollow voice echoed through the space as he scrambled from the Den and opened his eyes, gawking at the surroundings. He stood on a barren Earth, the Moon and world it had collided into blazing as the pieces from both planets stayed scattered around the space between them. Dark grey and dismal with the dust that hung in the air, the only color he could see was the red from the inferno still blazing both worlds. The moon burned a bright red that matched his own fur as the Earth smoldered just below it and his feet. The fox walked for eons, nothing moved, nothing changed. He became lost in the silence between the worlds, a silence that left an echo of his own life chewing and gnawing at every part of him as the wailing from the unseen voice grew in his ears, grew in his heart.

"Damnable creature! Why do you torment me!" The stars stayed bright, the sun stayed lit, the worlds still burned, but so slowly that he found himself counting days that would take a thousand years as the wailing from an unheard siren continued. Ruptured spaces hung in the sky, distant worlds were only an arm's length away and visions of things he’d never seen danced around like phantoms that faded in and out of reality. None of it was anything he could touch as it seemed to fly around in a suspended un-solid state. The only sensation he could clearly grasp was the sound in his ears of the wailing that was driving him insane.

"GRACE! PLEEAASE!" He dropped to his knees after begging for Grace to return again and clutched his head, pinning his ears back as everything around him, everything within him became too much to bear. The fox screamed, a million years of agony and loneliness rushing forward until the sound of his voice blasted the moon farther away and a light began to grow as the wailing around him became deafening. He turned trying to catch his breath as a singular spot appeared in front of him, blinking as the tiny speck grew until he was squinting against the light. Rings and orbs of light kept flooding into the tiny central point. The wailing he’d heard for centuries had his ears tipped back as he ground his teeth together. He lost his own footing when the sound became so large that everything in all the worlds vibrated around him as if the sound may shatter everything in existence.

The flashing orbs and rings of light kept pouring in and had him holding his paws up before the central point seemed to explode into a light brighter than all the suns in creation. His paws flew up as he turned away, trying to shield his eyes as he stumbled to the ground. Each breath he took heaved in as he scrambled, trying to find the odd object Grace had given him. He searched along the ground blindly after dropping it and grasped them firmly, whining as he fought to open them and get them on his face correctly. Loki looked up still trying to shield his eyes as the light seemed to shift. He looked again and found an unfamiliar form, or lack thereof, that each orb and ring seemed to be pulled into as he moved to get closer. "WHO ARE YOU? WHY DO YOU SCREAM?!"

Another shift and he kept his paws up as he moved closer, trying to identify who he was talking to. The fox reached out a paw and closed his eyes, turning his head as the bright figure grabbed his wrist. He’d expected to have his fur burnt off, but instead it burned as brightly as the fire from the moon that was used to create him. His eyes closed as he swayed and found himself engulfed in his own fire, and the being that had once been there vanished as he managed to open his eyes again, on fire and burning white hot. brighter than the smoldering lava of materials around him. He searched for the figure and curled his brow as he took a seat with hie eyes closing in an unusual calm.

Every question in his mind was answered or fled, every doubt disappeared, every regret faded, and every darkness within him dissipated along with all the pain. As the warmth of the light he was in consumed him, he settled into a calm no living being should ever know. All the knowledge of existence filled each empty part of the lonely life he’d known for so long. The memories of thousands of his children, every animal that had ever lived, every star ever born and died, every planet, every tiny little creature that had scurried through the worlds were his to know without the darkness or struggles through any of their lives present. He was whole, made complete by the missing pieces of all the lives he’d touched, all the lives he’d never known, all the lives that touched his mind through _her._

Through the veil he saw all the spaces between life and death, saw why the creature had wept for so long. He looked around and found that the orbs and rings of light no longer came to a point around him, but into him as he stood to his height again. Souls, the living souls of all departed rushed to him. The creature his father had deigned a beast became clear as he closed his eyes and let himself be flooded with each light that came to the being now settled in his own body. It knew no darkness, no pain, no chaos, and it had only known loneliness when it had realized a mistake had been made. The souls that no longer wished to be had been erased and cast away. Unknown to her, that even taking their memories and doing such still left echoes that were forgotten in the darkness. Each echo she’d cast away was lost in the coldness of space and sought out others, not understanding what they’d once been. What Odin called Fairy dust. Particles of things that had once been, broken and lost from what they were and where they were meant to be. They bonded together in loneliness to form the first God of knowledge, Odin. Odin had been collecting these pieces and echoes, creating other Gods and using them to feed the trees in Asgard that kept the Gods immortal.

Life had continued to grow on its own, and in trying to correct the mistake she’d made, she took in all souls that propelled existence. With more and more being born, they’d overwhelmed her to the point that the voices and individuality of all the others had been erased as she took more than she could carry. For the first time in her existence she knew what it was to be alone as she tried to save them all from being forgotten in the darkness. The attempt to save all the pieces of echoed souls was the cause of what was starving and killing the Gods. She’d pulled them all away from the trees in Asgard trying to save them.

Each soul that had returned to her was sent back to the worlds, to be reborn again and return with more knowledge to give her, or given the choice to become one with her and all the others. Those who stayed became Divine. Within the spark where the knowledge had overwhelmed her, they were lost in al the light of the life they had created. She was no God. She was a power and force nothing could stop. She was the essence of all light, of all life. The place where light began and life formed from her first cognitive thought, exploding into existence and growing over the cold darkness of time. “Who are you?”

The only thought that came to him, a simple statement in his own mind and voice as his flaming eyes opened again and her words echoed through all creation. "I AM."

**Notes; Time has no mercy to give. There is a recap of how Loki's children with Sigyn died, Narfi and Nari, the two sons he had with Sigyn and how Odin turned one into Vali, the wolf he cast to earth. His other children are in the Prose Edda, but a couple are often overlooked. A raven symbolizes bad luck, death, life, magic, mystery, intelligence, flexibility, destiny and Fate.**

**The Lady of the cliffs is not part of Norse mythology and is a part of this tale along with the children they had and how both her, his parents, brother and the giants changed Loki’s body. Grace is the old vixen who wrestled with Thor to help Loki and Heimdall show him he was not invincible. Sigyn was her first daughter/child. A child grown from a seed and a single grain of sand she/he placed within a piece of fruit in Asgard's garden, where she was found by Idun and became Loki's mate, turning him into what is now considered a true fox.**

**Loki and Heimdall fought over a necklace he stole from Freya (Brisingamen). It was a story told to Nick when he was younger. Heimdall stole Sigyn because Loki refused to return it. He traded it to get his wife back. Grace is the grim reaper, old age, darkness and shadows, the carrier of souls from one place to another. She is older than life itself. This creature Loki is with- IS NOT 'GOD' or a God at all. She is _above_ Gods ~The spark of creation~ the force that started all life in scientific terms is known as the Big Bang. No one understands exactly what caused this explosion that propelled all life. In this story, it was the realization of, “I AM.” Yes I’m mingling religion and science- While I don't believe in religions, I do believe they have a place in the world and serve a purpose. Time is above everything.**

**Lost In Silence; Killing Me Softly**

**Villain Of The Story; Peace Of Mind**

**Red; Pieces**


	24. Becoming We Are

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Its about to hit the fan-

**Becoming We Are**

K’NAAN; Is There Anybody Out There

Loki looked around and noted the odd physical sensation of his heart racing while each sound seemed to perk his ears. The fox smirked as it dawned on him that the creature he now held in his own body had never seen before, never heard anything, or smelled anything. Unlike a child she had the ability to understand language, but not the ability to identify anything other than pure information or raw emotion that held no darkness. He turned, allowing her to look around and chuckled at the wonder she held for everything. "How long have you been alone?"

"Alone?" The voice asked as he closed his eyes.

"Yes, alone with no one to keep you company. How much time have you been alone?"

"What is time?" she asked as his eyes opened again.

The fox curled his brow wondering how she could be within him and not hear his thoughts when he could clearly hear hers, until he considered why she’d let go of the souls who no longer wished to exist. She wouldn’t force any creature to become more than it wished to be or continue on a path it didn’t wish to follow, for she knew no darkness. So, she wouldn’t push into his mind and take over when it was obvious she had the power to do so. "Time is…uh, a construct of life. It is a…." The fox shook his head as he tried to find a simple way to explain it. "It is the space between when a life begins and ends. The space between when a soul comes and goes from you."

"Oh," she replied curiously as his feet started carrying them through the wasteland desert of a broken world. He was surprised by all the questions she had about everything around them as he got back to his den laughing.

"That is the Moon, this is the Earth. I think this is right before I was born."

"Born? What is... born?"

The fox chuckled as he decided that wasn't a conversation to have yet. "I will explain it to you, but right now I need to find something to eat because I am hungry."

"But you are Loki, how can you be hungry?"

He laughed as he opened the door to his lair. "I am Loki, I am also hungry. An odd thing since I am sure I have been here longer than I have lived and have wanted for nothing since I arrived. I don't think anything ages here or it does so slowly I cannot see it. I also need to get back so Heimdall does not worry. I am sure he is trying to pull his ears off by now."

"Ears? These are the things you hear the sounds with? What is worry?"

The fox smiled as he sat at the wooden table and pulled a loaf of bread from a shelf before tearing off a chunk and shoving it in his mouth. "Worry is a feeling you get when you can't find someone you have lost." He smirked as he tore another piece of bread off and shoved it in his maw when he felt a sense of curious satisfaction he knew wasn't coming from him. "This is bread. I think you like it. You are a curious creature, having all this knowledge about the realms and life, but not knowing of any of these things. I need to get back to my brother. Would you like to see more?"

"Is it like bread?" she asked and he snickered while he continued to eat.

"Yes, it will be like bread for you. I have to figure out how to get back because Grace will not answer me. I know I cannot use my dark magic carrying you around, not that it would do me any good trying to use it here again."

"Magic?"

"That I cannot explain, but I have so much knowledge in my head now I think I can do something that will get us both back. I hope I am right thinking no one will be able to see you or the things that keep coming to you while I keep you hidden."

"Hidden?"

"No one can see you. No one has ever seen you. You are one of the things taken for granted unless it is something that is significant when you are lost or when you arrive.”

“When I arrive?”

Loki chuckled, “When someone is born. I’ll explain that later. Right now, let us see if we can leave this place. I have no desire to stay where no real color has arrived yet."

"Color?"

The fox left the den and tilted his head in thought as a smile spread across his face. "I will show you color, if you can lend me a little bit of your light." He sucked in a breath as his fur and eyes lit up, and stood burning like an inferno as he collected the warmth and began to pool it in his paws, calling on all the knowledge of magic he had. But this was no dark magic he wielded as he spun and threw his paws in the air, chuckling again as the voice within him gasped with a sense of awe that permeated his whole being. "That is color. This is yellow, the closest color to what you are. This is violet, the color of the first true flower that will arrive on this planet and why my mother made my brother's eyes that shade of purple. This is red, the same as my fur and the fires that started when the Earth and Moon collided. Orange, the color of most living foxes today, green, the color of the living plants. Blue, the color of the sky. This is a rainbow, a bridge we can walk on from one realm to another, though I am sure Heimdall does not know of this realm."

"Realm…?" she asked as he looked around letting her see again.

"There are nine, I suppose ten with this one. This is Grace's realm. Well, no I guess not. She said this places was between places. I think it is why everything here moves so slowly and seems to be…not in the same place at the same time. That or she has somehow managed to make a place that isn't supposed to exist, but if you and I are here I do not know how to explain it. You…where did you come from? You don’t know about...You’ve never left your realm or land, never, lived?”

“I do not know what land or never is.”

“Grace said something along the line of Neverland.” Loki chuckled as he recalled what Grace had said. “A tenth realm, where everything stays unseen and hidden. It might be how she moves around like she does through the shadows and spaces between time. Grace brought me here. She is everywhere, even in the places you cannot be."

"Grace?" she asked as he stepped onto the bridge and felt his heart jump as he looked over the edge, snickering as she jolted from the first fear she’d ever felt.

"Grace, darkness, time, knows all, sees all, hears all. She is stronger than all the Gods. I am surprised you don't know he…. you don't know her." The fox sighed as he felt a sense of curiosity growing and shook his head. "I know why she brought me here. She made one hell of a point. To save me, to save you, to save herself."

"Save herself?"

Loki hummed as he kept walking, making a point to look around so she could see the cosmos they traveled through. "Each point of light out here came from you. Every light, every life will cast a shadow. Every living creature has a mind that is a shadow because no one else can see what they are thinking or feeling. Within the shadows is where she lives and how she came to be. She is the only thing in existence that you did not create. Well not directly anyway. The life forms that grew within the light you created, created her. She has always been, because before you there was only darkness. But she had no form, no thoughts, no face of her own and not even a memory until others came to be. She lives within each living creature and pulls the darkness away from them before she brings them back to you to start all over again. She is more than what she appears to be. Odin is my father and Freya is my mother. They both taught me as I grew, but I think Grace had more to do with who I am than even Sigyn. Because she knew what was going to happen if she did not get involved. I loved Sigyn so much that it changed me, I changed for her, for the love she held for me."

"Love? What is love?"

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Heimdall's ears shot up as he searched through the realms again. A thunderous roar from somewhere unseen broke through the barriers of Asgard's entrance and he was thrown back, shaking his head as a rainbow appeared. The hare stood wide eyed as Loki walked to the gates, the rainbow bridge behind him fading as his feet hit the ground.

"Heimdall, what is love?" The hare looked at him and twisted his neck with a raised brow as the fox smirked.

"How did you…I'm the only one who can open the gates to Asgard and create a rainbow bridge." Loki snickered as his brother glared and gawked at him. "What are those apertures attached to your face? How can you see with that darkness over your eyes?"

"You don't see the lights?" Loki asked looking around as the hare looked him over curiously.

"Have you gone completely mad?" Heimdall asked as he shook his head.

"Heimdall, what is love?" he asked again, smiling as the buck's brow curled down in confusion.

"Love is…a bridge? A bridge that can connect all places and all living things together. Loki? What is wrong with you?" He asked as his brother kept smiling.

"Nothing. I have never felt better. Want to play a game?"

"A game?" Heimdall asked. One side of his lip turned up in confusion as his whiskers twitched.

"Hide and seek." Loki stated as he squared his shoulders, smiling broadly as his brother looked him over with a tipped brow.

"Ugh, we are a little old for that one, are we not?"

Loki shrugged as he clicked his tongue. "Ok, how about tag?" he asked with a sneaky smirk before he leaned forward and flicked the hare's ears. Heimdall's face turned to a scowl as his brother shot off in another direction. "TAG! You're it!"

"What is wrong with him? He is acting so strangely. I think he has fallen from the edge of the worlds!"

"Then perhaps you should catch him." Heimdall's ears lifted as he turned and found Grace leaning into the side of the wall that surrounded Asgard. The hare looked at her blinking as she tipped her head down, letting the glasses filled with sand on her muzzle slide forward as the gleam in her eyes caught the reflection of daylight. "If he is going Mad as you believe, then should you not make every moment you have with him that he remembers count?" she asked as he looked back to where he could hear the fox taunting as he kept running. "Build another bridge Heimdall, it is the only thing that can bring you all together." The buck looked off in thought as a thin smile curled his mouth and the vixen giggled as he bound his legs tightly and jumped, racing to catch his brother.

Grace watched as Heimdall chased Loki all over Asgard, laughing when the hare jumped in front of the fox under a low bridge. Loki fell backwards with surprised shock that raced through the being he was carrying and hiding, rolling into a laugh as the excitement from something new rushed through her. The fox looked up grinning widely as Heimdall extended a paw and helped him off the ground. "Loki, that is the first time I have heard you laugh in a millennia! Where have you been?"

The fox shrugged as the two started walking together. "Finding myself, finding reason."

"Reason?" Heimdall asked as he tipped his head.

The fox sighed as he looked back over the water they stood in front of. "Reason, Heimdall. There isn't one. For anything. It just is. We have no control over what happens with life, but, good or bad, life happens. And I would not change the time I had with any of my children. I would not change a single moment if it led me to love them, or Sigyn, even if I did lose them." He cupped a paw over his brother's shoulder and left the hare there with the same perplexed look on his face as he dove into the water, becoming a fish again before he swam away.

Heimdall followed Loki, worrying more and more as he watched him shifting to countless forms and laughing. "No, I have been every living creature at one time or another. The giants flooded me with magic and nearly killed me with the strength they added to my body. I became part wolf and lion when my parents tried to save me, part hare when my brother's tail got tangled in mine. The lady of the cliffs placed part of herself inside me, and I became able to give birth and sire children. I have given birth to thousands of children…The first were all eggs." Heimdall's face curled to worry as the fox laughed and shook his head, seeming to talk to someone who wasn't there. "No, they were not birds, and didn't lay eggs either. Their mother was a great reptile in the dawn of time. They had wings like hers but many looked like me, some were small, some were large, almost all of them had fur and furless skin. They were very unusual. Infuriated my father, caused a lot of fighting because in order to feed them we had to give them our energy. They couldn't eat the fruit or wine here because they were half mortal, half God. But we also found out that they could give us something back with their tails, something very similar to the feeling I have now. Euphoric I suppose. No, I can't explain it because I never did that with them. It was the other Gods that started it. My father called it Lust, but from what I understood that wasn't a very good word for it."

"They simply gave part of themselves back to those who had given to them. The lust was that some of the Gods became addicted to that feeling and couldn't get enough. They started fighting over one of them in particular, so my father cut some of their tails off and forbade it in Asgard. It only seemed to create two separate creatures instead of the one that had been. Their tails became something else. Some other kind of animal." Heimdall watched as Loki's ears flicked back and forth, a deep look of contemplation and thought etched into his features before he spoke again.

"No, they did not all look like this, these are my other children." Loki shifted and tilted his head at the water. "Her name was Hel. She was probably the most unique. A giant who was half alive and half dead is what they said. My father blamed her for the diseases of the world, misfortune, corruption and greed. He threw her under one of the roots of the Yggdrasil tree. This is Fenrir, the largest wolf ever in existence. They chained him up because he was so strong that none of the Gods could beat him. That is the world serpent Jormungandr. My father put him in the waters of the Earth. They say he is the reason for typhoons and great storms that sink ships and destroy lands. This is Sleipner. My father adored him, maybe because I didn't raise him and that he was of no threat to the Gods."

Heimdall looked on sadly as Loki shifted from form to form, explaining each one as if he had never seen them before and pointing to the reflection of himself in the water he stood in. Hel turned shaking his head as Loki spoke again.

"No, I think they were all so different because of what the Giants did, my parents trying to save me, my brother's tail, but mostly because of the lady of the Cliffs. She was…not a mammal. She had a great deal of dark magic that she used to put part of herself in me so we could have children and was the reason I can be one or the other, a mother or a father. These are my last, both foxes like me and their mother. Nari and Narfi, the oldest was changed to a wolf named Vali and killed his brother. My father renamed him Vali after he changed him, before he threw him to the Earth to be alone. They say he howls at the Moon in mourning for me, for his mother, his brother and the family he lost."

Loki's ears flicked back as he dropped his head. "No, the Lady of the Cliffs was not a good animal. I was never in love with her. She cast a spell on me that made me think I was. My father wanted to destroy the world because of everything she did, start it over because the animals that were growing were getting so dark he was afraid they would destroy the light." The fox tipped his head nodding as he shifted again. "The dark animals? My father ended up calling them Titans because they got so big. No one really knows how they got that big. When they came to the Earth, they brought water and other elements with them, but they were so small then you couldn't even see them. I found out later the reason she wanted us to have children was so she could get them to go between the realms. She wanted to have the power of…."

Heimdall shook his head in sorrow as he watched his brother. "He retells his life as if he speaks to another. It is worse than madness, it is not Sigyn he speaks to if he must explain even their children. He has lost his mind…."

"Then you should try to keep him happy." He turned frowning at Grace as he shook his head.

"You want me to encourage this?" he asked with a curled lip as she shrugged.

"I did not say encourage, just know he is still your brother, no matter where his mind is. You have tried to bring him from misery so many times, can you not do the same when he is happy?"

"Happy?" Heimdall asked as he looked back at his brother in a worried tilt. "It is not real, Grace. Whatever he is seeing, feeling. It will do no good if he wakes to find it is nothing more than his own mind where he finds his peace. Not when he realizes he is alone again."

"Peace of mind is all it takes to find happiness, Heimdall. You, Loki, no other creature living, is ever truly alone. Not even in your darkest moments." The hare looked at her and tipped a brow as he narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "The past will lead you to the present. It makes you who you are, you must determine who you will become in the moment, and choose the light you wish to live in."

His brow curled under as she slipped into the shadows and was gone as he shook his head and looked back to the red fox again. "That vixen talks in more riddles than he does." The hare sighed heavily as he heard Loki chuckling again and shook his head as he dove into the water and swam to his brother, determined to keep him from sinking any further into his own broken dreams. They swam back to land and found themselves sitting under the tree of life, counting eggs as Loki lifted a paw. "What are you doing?"

Loki snickered as he raised one paw in the air. "Did you know that lightning bugs were once thought to be grass fire spirits? I know what they really are."

“What they really are?”

Loki looked back at him smirking. “Did you know that every living soul comes back one last time to see the world if they have decided they do not wish to live another life?”

Heimdall looked around and rolled his eyes. "Your point is?"

Loki sat up straight and Heimdall tipped forward as his paw began to glow. "That means that if I can create the right light, they will come to me. Keep them closed and wait." The fox closed his eyes as Heimdall tipped a brow.

"I am not closing my eyes. Loki, I do not think they will come to you if…." Heimdall tipped a brow and blinked as Loki's paw started flickering like a waving flame. The hare shook his head as several little bugs started zooming around his brother's paw. "How did you learn how to do that?"

"How many are there?" Loki asked grinning as Heimdall shook his head.

"I….have no idea." The buck stood up looking around with his mouth hanging open as Loki chuckled.

"Are you ready?" Loki asked.

Heimdall looked at him and shot his ears up. "Am I ready for what?" Loki opened his eyes and spotted the little blinking bugs everywhere. The hare jumped when the fox jerked as if trying to escape his own paw that was covered with them. He fell back laughing and rolled to his side as Heimdall sighed and sat next to him again. "Neat trick. Where did you learn how to do that?"

The fox looked at him and shrugged. "Kitsukune."

Heimdall nodded as he leaned against the tree. "So, what do you want to do now, Loki?"

The fox snickered as he laid back with his brother. The hare kept him company over several centuries, listening to him talking and explaining things that were common knowledge until the day their father came to call on them. Loki ceased his ramblings as the Lion looked him over and turned an angry brow.

"I can see them." Odin growled as he dipped lower. Heimdall lifted a brow as the red fox bore his teeth and stepped away, holding the odd pieces over his eyes. "Where is that creature!?" he snarled as the fox stepped away again shaking his head. "LOKI!"

"She is not yours to hold, nor is the power she has!" He spat as Odin growled again. Heimdall looked between them wide eyed as he shook his head.

"BUT YOU HOLD IT NOW, KNOWING IT IS THE REASON WE ALL STARVE! YOU WANT TO TAKE ITS POWER AND OVERTHROW ME! GIVE ME THAT CREATURE!"

The fox growled and braced his paws on the ground as Odin roared and tried to leap at him. The cat disappeared in a swirl of darkness as Grace stood in front of them with her teeth bore. "Leave this place! Hide her! Take her back where she belongs!" Loki turned and rushed away as Heimdall stood there in shock, watching the old vixen wrestling with his father. "CHOOSE YOUR MOMENT, HEIMDALL!" Grace screamed as Odin roared again.

The hare shook his head as he turned, and ran after his brother. He found the fox standing at the gates of Asgard with his paws held out and fell in shock as Loki turned into a molten flaming lava as he threw his arms up tossing up a rainbow bridge that burst form his paws. "What have you done, Loki?! You brought that thing here! This is who you have been talking to all this time? Knowing it is what kills us!?"

The fox turned and shook his head as he stepped onto the bridge he’d created, letting his fur come back into place as the heat faded. "You know nothing Brother, nothing of what she is."

"What do I need to know! Being near it has nearly blinded you to being in the sun! You complain of the pain every time you take those things off your face! And Grace, Grace has known?! You let that thing...fade into you and hid it, it has shielded the pain and truth from you! Have you forgotten they are all dead?! Not even I can see the sense in what you do!"

"They are dead! But they are not gone! She did not fade anything from me! I have kept the darkness from her! I only saw truth! If you refuse to listen, I will hide her away from you and the others, in a place I know you cannot find her!" he spat as he stepped back again and turned, rushing over the bridge. Heimdall growled as he bound his legs and jumped, only to gasp as his feet went through the light of the rainbow. He barely dangled above Asgard as he clutched the grass and pulled himself up again. He looked back panting as Odin raced towards him with a furious growl…

**Notes; In China they once believed fireflies were embers caused from burning grass.**

**Grace; “The past will lead you to the present.” Heimdall sees the past, Sigyn lived in the present.**

Loki and Creature: David Cook; Fade into Me

Heimdall and Grace: Jackson Browne; Some Bridges


	25. One And Nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiding In The Light

**One and Nine**

K’NAAN; Is There Anyone Out There

Natasha Bedingfield; Hope

The lion searched the heavens as he curled his lip up. "Where is he?!"

Heimdall shook his head as he caught his breath. "I do not know father, I could not follow on the bridge he opened. It would appear that it can only hold his feet!"

"Or that wretched creature he holds!" Odin growled as he turned, snarling in his son's face. The hare lifted his head as his father curled his lip up. "This is the moment Heimdall, when your allegiance will be tested. He has sided with the creature who is killing us, if you choose to stay with him in this, leave this place and never return!"

Heimdall shook his head as he looked back to the fading bridge. "I cannot side with him Father, I do not understand what he is doing. I can't even follow him into the realm he went to for I have lost the ability to open three bridges and have never seen the one he used."

"I want to know as soon as you hear him again… I want that creature dead!" Heimdall nodded as he ticked his eyes to the ground and pinned his ears to his head as his father stormed away. The buck stood there with his head hung low and his teeth curled out as Grace appeared in front of him.

"You led it here? Knowing he would hide it from all of us?!"

The vixen tilted her head in a harsh glare as the hare turned his lip down. "I have no power over the choices he makes, nor of yours. I did not lead him here, nor did I tell him to bring it with him. If you are so intent on knowing why he did it, perhaps the next time you meet each other, you should ask." She was gone into the shadows again as he clenched his fists.

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Loki rushed over the bridge into a burning world again as he fought to catch his breath. "You have to stay here." The creature within him whined as he shook his head. "You won't be alone for long. I will come back. I just have to explain it to my brother when my father is not around. Listen to me, please. I will not lie to you or any other and though my words may be meant to fool some at times, they are always sincere." The whining died lower as he closed his eyes. "You have no name, it will make you difficult to find. Not even what my children called you is known to my father because they did not trust him. I have had many names and can be found easily. I am a fox and give you my word I will find you again. Be patient, it will take some time to convince my brother. You have to leave me now and stay here." He fell back as the creature left him, folding his arms and paws over his face as the light fled away, taking the orbs that kept coming to him with her. He made his way back to the lair he’d left behind and rubbed his temples as his eyes ached, jolting when he opened them to find Grace standing in front of him again. "The lady of the cliffs started all of this. She was trying to get to her realm, through our children? Its why you told me…. Ugh." He groaned as he shook his head.

Grace nodded as he closed his eyes and sighed. "I have no power over free will, Loki. She wished to hold the same power your Father seeks. He was afraid your children would be able to travel between the realms. That is why she changed you so you could birth them."

"Grace, you know there is no way she could have…" Loki froze as his face fell in horror. "She was going to change them or…kill them after they were born, trying to make them so they could move between the veil between life and death? So they could steal what my Father is after?

Grace turned her eyes as she nodded. "Something half alive and half dead. She believed they could travel through the veil."

“Eternity? This place is the veil? You’re the only one who can be here?" Grace sighed as Loki clenched his eyes. “That is why they were all so different, so many different sizes and…." Loki cringed as Grace hung her head.

"I am sorry, Loki. I cannot tell of the future either. The mortals called them Angels because of their mother's name. The Lady of the Cliffs was powerful enough that her name survived when the Titans did not. The angels of Valhalla, were the children of…."

Loki hung his head as he turned from her and covered his eyes. "Angela, and Father's eye? Sigyn?" Grace bowed her head as she looked away. "You gave Heimdall sight of the future by placing a grain of your sand in the eye father had cast into the waters of knowledge?" Grace glanced at him and the fox cringed. "You brought me Sigyn…. There are always three. Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld. Mimir blinded them for stealing the eye and they could no longer see without it as a punishment. They went missing while I was….She was the reason they…Angela killed them?” Loki watched Grace cringe and shook his head. “I’m the reason Heimdall swallowed Father’s eye?”

"She did not want them to tell your father of her plans."

Loki turned his head. "Heimdall was the first, Sigyn was the second. There is another?"

Grace lifted her head and squared her shoulders. "No, but there may yet be."

"You saw all of this…. You cannot stop my Father, can you Grace?"

"No, I cannot. I have no power over free will Loki." Grace let her head fall as Loki sighed.

"This is why you changed and became a vixen….Why you did all- Take me back, Grace. I need to tell Heimdall." The vixen nodded as he closed his eyes and blinked as light poured through the low window. She’d already placed his den back in its original realm just before the door rattled and his brows rose as Heimdall burst into the room. The fox dipped lower and turned, grabbing a sword from the table before he spun again, clashing with his brother.

"Loki! You have betrayed us all! Not even I can forgive what you have done, bringing that creature into our home to see every weakness we have and giving it the satisfaction of knowing it is killing us slowly!"

Loki sucked in a breath as his brother shoved him back with his sword before they both swung again. "You do not understand! Heimdall, she is not what Father says she is! He has not told any of us what she truly is! He has lied trying to make us believe she is evil when she is a complete innocent! If he believes that is what she is, he is more blind than even I thought!"

The hare narrowed his eyes as their faces and swords nearly came to touching. "Lies, it corrupts even you who has sworn never to lie! In all your trickery I have never seen such a blatant misuse of truth!" The fox's eyes went wide as Heimdall swung his sword out before they were both grunting through each fevered swing they kept trying to cut each other down with.

"You believe me to be lying!" the fox growled as Heimdall pushed forward again. "You of all know me better, Brother!"

"Grace is with you in this! That evil vixen has let the darkness she is consume her and pulled you into it with her!"

"No, Brother," Loki shook his head as he huffed and kept his sword held out as Heimdall scowled and readied to attack again. "Grace is merely trying to make me see the same thing she has already seen."

"Grace has corrupted you!"

"Grace is not her name and you know she changed for us, she was not Grace when we met, _he_ was an old animal, a winged shadow void of humor and bitter. Do you think _she_ changed just on a whim?"

Heimdall curled his brow and shook his head. "Riddles again! Can you not just speak clearly!? What is it she hides? Why do you hide that creature that kills us?!"

"Why did you not tell father you were coming to find me?!"

The hare stopped and huffed as he looked back at Loki and dropped his eyes to the floor. "The same reason I came to find you when Father set the world on fire, before he drowned it so it would start over again. I want to believe there is another reason Loki, but this, this is…. TREACHERY EVEN I CANNOT FORGIVE!"

"You saw my children before they were born! You knew the Valkyries were not evil! That is why you helped me bring them back!"

"That does not mean I believe that creature is not the cause of this!" Heimdall screamed as they clashed swords again.

The fox stumbled back huffing as the hare ground his teeth and charged again. "GRACE BROUGHT ME SIGYN TO STOP THIS!" Heimdall stopped, dropping his sword as Loki huffed and shook his head. "She is her mother, her father. She placed a grain of her sand in the piece of fruit that grew into the life we both loved. She was a sign of time! You loved her as much as I.”

Heimdall lowered his brow and grit his teeth as his nostrils flared. "You knew she was the one I loved? And yet everything you did caused her pain!"

The hare and fox were both in another heated pitch as swords clinked together in a ferocious cycle of fevered thrashes. The brothers fought until they were winded and sought refuge for air as they glared at each other. "You do not know what you are doing, Loki! This is futile at best, no good will come at this end. It will end, just like you ended her!"

"I did not end her! She was lost from a broken heart I did not cause!" Loki pulled away shaking his head and wiped his brow as Heimdall shook his head scowling.

"Father may have taken your sons, you are the one who chose that path and dragged her with you. There is no path you could take I can see now that will lead to anything but darkness with that creature."

"You speak as if you have seen my future, Heimdall." The red foxed smirked as he huffed, poised for another strike. "When I know you have not, for I have not let you view it. Do you wish to find the same darkness father lives in?”

The buck lowered his sword and extended a paw towards the fox, recalling Grace's words as his brow tipped. "Then let me now, and I will tell you if there is any hope in what you endeavor for."

The red fox gave a cursory glance to the hare's paw. "What assurance have I you will not slay me in that state of reprieve you seek to view?"

The hare openly scoffed at the fox. "It is not I who is the one choosing to battle. Not I who chose a path that would lead to father wishing you had never been born, or hiding the one who steals our life. Give me a reason to believe anything you say Loki. Show me a cause you deem worthy of dying for and I may join it with you and seek glory in Valhalla."

The red fox shook his head at the hare. "Valhalla is no more, nor is the underworld, Brother. Father has taken back all the life force and stowed the knowledge and wisdom of the other Gods in the Ozaruki. Our time comes to an end soon."

The hare shook his head at the fox again. "You would have us all die for this? You would die for that creature? Father can restore them all when it is finally dead."

The fox extended a paw towards the hare. "If you wish to know all I know about 'that creature' then look and see all the possible futures I cannot see, and understand the past I have kept hidden from your view."

The fox and the hare extended their arms and grasped each other at the elbow, leaned in and touched their foreheads together and a flash blinded the Loki as the Heimdall jolted upright. "What you seek is… You will suffer as no other ever has, and the chance of your success is infinitesimal."

"Is she not worth it brother?"

"She?! She has, she is, will be…. Someone has finally reached your jaded soul Loki, and I pity that creature for it may suffer a fate worse than even all you will endure. Is it also willing to die for you? Have you not thought of what will happen if you have chosen the wrong path?" the hare asked as they stood away from each other again.

Loki stood fast and raised his sword again. Smiling as he nodded. "I have chosen a path haven't I? I will fight for her. I will suffer any hardship to keep her safe and would die a thousand deaths for her to live but once. I will defy all the Gods to be true to her and stay this path."

The buck took a step forward and shook his head. "I weep for all the tears you will shed in this, the only gift I can give you on your journey will be the one that may destroy you. But answer me this first brother," the fox furrowed his brow in confusion and tilted his head curiously before the buck continued. "Was that creature the reason you finally shed a tear for Balder and he was brought back?"

The fox shifted on his feet as his ears tipped back and tinted a brighter shade of red as his eyes flicked to the floor. Heimdall gave him a tilted head in return and an overly pleased smirk as he chuckled. Loki looked back at the buck with a shameful look on his face. "I have no reservations then on your true intent here, Brother. But I had to ask knowing how tricky you are. I wish you to succeed in this quest and only wish further to lessen your suffering, though I know it will not be so. I will hope with all I have to meet you again." Loki gasped with wide eyes as his brother stepped into him grasping his neck with one paw and Heimdall dropped his own sword as he grasped his brother's sword handle with the other. "They approach, make my death swift brother. This is the only way to the path we both hope you will end." Loki grasped his brother by the neck and pressed his head to the hare's.

"She is more beautiful than all the stars Heimdall, do not go into the light. Give her this message for me when you meet her. Tell her to run to me. Tell her to run." He thrust his sword into the hare and pierced his heart. "Forgive me brother," Loki said as tears rolled down his muzzle staining his fur. The buck crumpled into his shoulder in a final embrace as he smiled at the fox.

"A parting gift for you Loki, for if father succeeds, we will all be lost." A sharp pain ran through the fox's chest as his brother hit him with the last bit of strength he had. Loki looked down in confusion. Heimdall smiled and shook his head when he saw no injury with a deep throb running through his chest. "Trust in Grace, Loki. She will know what to do."

The hare died in his arms and Loki screamed out in anguish as he watched, sobbing as Heimdall's eyes closed. Loki's gaze shifted as a shadow came into view. "You are my brother's keeper, Grace. Keep him safe, do not let him go into the light."

Loki fell to his knees with his brother in his arms as the shadow disappeared, the massive doors to his hidden hall bursting open. "NO!" Thor and Tyr screamed as they entered the room and saw the sight of their slain brother. Thor thrust his fist into Loki's jaw, knocking him away from the fallen Hare and tossing his body into the wall as Tyr checked on the bloodied body of Heimdall. The dark horse shook his head and the massive bull picked up the fox slamming him into the wall.

"Loki," Thor said as he held his brother high, "All father will kill you for this."

The fox glared through tear filled eyes at the brother holding him by the throat and then looked back to the brother he had slain, watching the shadows creeping around the room. "I do not think he shall have enough time, Brother."

Thor drug Loki to the great hall of Odin as Tyr carried the body of Heimdall to their father. The hare was laid at the feet of the Gods and their mother and siblings wept as Loki was tossed to the feet of the great All father. Odin sent his wife and daughters away to spare them further heartbreak as he stood before the red fox at his paw feet. "What have you done?!" Odin screamed in fury at the tod in front of him. Loki's body sank as his head fell.

"Only what I must have, Father."

The great maned lion shook in rage as he viewed the body of his slain son. "None has ever spilled blood inside Asgard. You have cut off your finest tail! And you do not deserve to bear the number of them you have for such treachery! It will be your shame to bear only one tail as a reminder of the brother you have slain and the realms you shall no longer enter!" Odin motioned to Thor and Bragi to restrain the red fox as the dark horse Tyr cut off eight of his nine tails, causing the fox to scream in agony as each one was hacked off separately and tossed to his father's paw feet.

Loki sucked back his screams as Odin had his other sons bind him to great stones and pillars with giant serpents. The great brown bear Balder burst back into the great hall, exclaiming that the Ozaruki were missing.

"Where is my Armor! Tell me where it is and I may let you live. I will forgive all this if you show me where to find that beast so I can restore them!"

Loki chuckled as his father growled. "I do not have your armor, I would not keep the souls of any living being from the choice they are meant to have. It was Heimdall's charge to keep the Armor. He was the guardian of all Asgard's treasure and if you did not find them stowed in one of his magical pouches, I cannot tell you where they are. But I am glad you cannot hold them prisoner any longer."

"Prisoners! They are your siblings, your family! They will all be returned when I have the power to do so!"

"That power is not yours! Nor do you have the right to collect them when they have fallen! It never was and you have lied to all of us about what 'that creature' is! Or are you so blinded by your hate, by your pain that you cannot see her for what she is?"

"It is careless! It is evil, it is not good enough to hold what it has!"

"AND YOU ARE BETTER!? When you take what she had thought she erased and create more, when you use those pieces to feed yourself into immortality?! You used my children as your servants, to collect those pieces, to fight your battles, to tend to your personal needs! The Valkyries were never meant to be slaves!"

"They were abominations! I found a place they could be useful!"

"To what end, Father?! When you found out what they could do you cast them aside. As you feel she did with you. When she gave you what you asked for, even when you came to her? You were a shadow of something left behind, and you hate her for it, but it was your choice! I will not help you harm her."

Odin roared loud enough that it echoed through all of Asgard. "I offer you life and retribution and yet you still refuse me! Why?! Or do you care not for all the gifts I have bestowed upon you and the forgiveness I offer when you have committed such a heinous crime?"

Loki looked to his father with great sorrow, "Please father, I know the sorrow that you hide behind. It is not real. Can you not see that this, this end you fear is just another beginning?"

"Lies! What can I offer you that will make you see the truth!" The lion roared as he grit his teeth.

Loki hung his head as he looked back to his brother. "There is nothing you could offer that would replace what I have lost or forgive what I have done. I will lose no more for this farce. She is the path to any future. Our time is at an end and your pride keeps your wisdom from seeing the truth behind what will come."

Odin roared again as he lashed out at Loki, striking him and causing the serpents to coil tighter around him as he jolted from the impact. "That creature has tainted you! It fills your head with lies! When it is dead, I will restore all that has been lost and take the place that beast had no regard to hold!"

"Are you fool enough to believe you can hold the power she has contained?! It nearly destroyed her! You are not meant to take her stead!"

The great lion scoffed at his son. "I will not be so careless as that creature was. I will make things the way they should have always been."

"SHE MADE A MISTAKE! ONE SHE ONLY TRIES TO RECTIFY THROUGH PURITY!" Loki growled.

"PURITY!?" the lion roared again. "A mistake it made more times than there are stars in all the heavens!"

"SHE DID NOT KNOW! SHE IS INNOCENT OF THE CRIME YOU ACCUSE HER OF!" Loki screamed as best he could through the pain he was suffering, struggling to hold fast against his father. He curled both paws around the serpents holding him and managed to raise to his feet as his body ached and ground his teeth as he hissed and fought the tears in his eyes. "I know why you hated them. I know why you hated the Lady of the Cliffs. She put this idea in your head because you believed she could do it. You did everything you could to stop her. It was a noble and righteous cause Father and I. Am. Sorry. I should have listened to you about her, but my children were not evil, no more than 'that creature' is, and you know it. I did not know. She did not know."

"Ignorance is no excuse for guilt. I will not be ended by the likes of that beast in this fashion, with no glory and no honor. Or have you forgotten those things you birthed caused peril here, that it attempting to fix this mistake is what takes our lives now?" he asked the tod in front of him as he curled his lips and bore his teeth.

Loki grimaced as he held his head higher. "Have you forgotten how you came to be? How all the Gods were born?"

The lion stood tall and arched his back. "That is not likely something one could forget and is exactly why it is unworthy of the life it has. I will find that creature, and I will destroy it."

"YOU KNOW WHAT SHE IS! It is what you asked of her! You cannot kill her! I BEG OF YOU FATHER- have some semblance of sanity and see that your pride, your pain has blinded your wisdom!"

"YOU DARE TO BEG FOR THE LIFE OF THAT CREATURE!" Odin curled his paw around the fox's throat and the serpents slithered away, leaving him hanging in the grasp of the lion. "For the insolence and insult you have proffered upon your brethren, I will take back the powers you have gained. I will remove the immortality that I so foolishly allowed you. For your foolishness in caring for a creature unworthy of the life you care not for, I will cast you out among the mortals. You will never know true happiness. Even your name shall be cursed to speak! It will be so until the day I am dead, you worthless, ungrateful pelt! You will never know who you are or remember another lifetime through each veil, you will never find peace, you will carry the pain of each lifetime within you, and for your arrogance, I curse all foxes to live in shame beside your mistakes, never to be trusted, never to be thought of as anything more than miscreants and worthless thieves! You will live and be reborn to die each lifetime alone. Each time you find happiness it will be ripped from you once you realize what it truly is and you will be miserable for the rest of that lifetime, only to be born again and repeat the same through all Eternity! You will watch the ones you care for the most suffer and die in agony before you face it yourself!"

"You will undo even all Heimdall has put in place for the world in this! Father, Please!"

"I care not for mortals when it is my own family I try to save, and you will be among those things, living life after life of misery as I find that creature. I will slay it and make sure it dies a lonely death!"

"NO! I CANNOT LEAVE HER ALONE!" Loki screamed as his father raised him higher and wound one paw back, pulling the bright red from his fur until it became a dull orange as his eyes turned from red to a dull gray. He dropped the fox and Loki looked back to him feeling a weakness he had never known as Freya burst into the room.

"NO!" the she wolf screamed as Odin pulled the power the fox had once had into his own body and lifted him again.

Loki smiled at his mother as his face dripped with tears. "Have hope, Mother."

"Worthless thieving fox! You shall no longer be a son of mine!" Freya howled as Odin hurled Loki into the darkness of space and hit her knees as the lion looked back at her.

He took a heavy seat, disgusted at the tails laying at his feet. His eyes shot up as a beam of light fled into the room and flooded all of Asgard. The creature he had sought had come to him and the smile on his face as he watched it looking around only grew as its confusion took over. He tried to swipe at it and pulled his paw back, hissing as it moved away. The fur on his paw singed and burnt as he ground his teeth together and picked up the fox's tails. "Here. Join the worthless pelt if you have the power, bring him back."

The figure billowed around him examining the tails until Freya clapped both paws over her ears when it finally understood Loki was gone, that part of him had been taken away and if he’d come to her, he would have been lost in all her knowledge, his personality and self-erased as she took him in, like all the others who had come to her over thousands of years. She would never have known and was alone again as she fell to her knees wailing. The lion dropped his ears back as she folded around the fox's tails and threw his paws up as the wailing became a scream that blasted him back to his throne as she threw all her power to him.

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A formless figure swooped into the darkness watching the lion cast bloodied fur at the glowing shape. It fell to the floor as Loki's tails landed at its feet, wailing before a burst of light shot to the large cat. The shapeless form flew into the darkness, swooping the spark from the flash, leaving ashes scattering everywhere before disappearing into the vast coldness and flying faster than the stars could burn.

Ashes flooded Asgard as Odin tried to clear his eyes. Shadows moved around in the haze and a silent figure stole in, picking up a dying ember before it was gone with the wind that carried the ashes. The lion roared as he stood, power surging through him as he turned smiling at Freya. Odin stood watching the ashes blow away, billowing in laughter as power surged through every muscle. He was laughing as his remaining children moved to the room, his mate looking him over sorrowfully, knowing their sons had been lost as she let her head fall and turned her eyes.

"I will fix it love, all of it."

Freya shook her head, letting her tears fall as she curled her arms around herself. "You cannot fix this. Heimdall warned you. There is a reason they called him the God of Mind's eye. He saw what was to come. You still refuse to believe anything he said. He was not the only one who warned you. What she told you has come to pass, do you still believe they are not seeing more than what we can? You know what will happen now that it has been destroyed. How will you fix this? Heimdall is truly lost, and now Loki is lost too. How many more?"

She looked around watching the ash blowing away, seeing their children looking between them as Odin stood taller and began to glow. "I will fix it. All of it." Freya watched as her mate took up a pen, her brow curling as he seemed to be listening to something no one could hear as his ears ticked, ruffling in the wind that kept flicking with each line he wrote. The large lion shook his head as he rolled the scrolls and encased them in clay. Each line he’d written laid out in the simplest terms so the mortals could follow them and find the Ozaruki so he could return all the life that had been lost in Asgard. "All we must do now is wait. The mortals will find the Ozaruki, and I will fix it love." Freya watched as he threw the scrolls to the earth, turning her head back to her mate with a heavy sigh.

The she wolf stepped out to the large landing above Asgard and perked her ears, turning as she heard a whisper. Her eyes glazed over as Grace stood in front of her, holding three tiny specks of light. "Have hope, Mother of life. I will do all I can to change the path." The wolf sobbed and nodded as Grace slipped the tiny specks back into her robes. The vixen's eyes shot open and tilted into a warm smile as Freya curled around her.

"Save my sons, Grace. Save all of them and call on me if you need my help." The vixen nodded as she smiled, clasping the wolf's paws.

"Mother of life and love, I will call you from the second star to the right." She flew back into the darkness as Freya looked over the stars smiling with her eyes still cresting over.

"You were whispering to him while he wrote weren't you, Grace?" She laughed as she wiped the tears from her cheeks and shook her head as a distant star twinkled. "I will wait for you until after you have traveled straight on to morning…and help you all get back to Neverland."

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In the darkness of space, a formless shape grabbed the scrolls that were flying through the black. Nothing in the void was beyond reach for her but one thing, and there was no changing what Odin had already done. All Grace could do was hope, hope that all she was going to do, all she had done would be enough to change what would happen as she buried each scroll in the sands, in the mountains, in the sea. She could not hold what she had for very long, she would have to move quickly as she reached into robes made of stars and planets, pulling out several tiny specks before closing them back in her paw and rushing to the Earth.

"I will do everything I can to guide you to the right places, you are our only hope. You all must find each other again, you must show her the truth, or all will be lost. I must bide my time so you are all in the right place at the right time, when everything aligns to fit the scrolls. Loki is our only hope to save her, you must find a way to help him after all he endures, Heimdall. He is your brother, no matter where his mind lives. Now you shall become known as what your mother gave you as a reminder of this world and the life that started here. I shall guide you, again and again, until you find the boy who never truly dies. Bring him back to her, be their protection, be their faith. Forgive me little one, I must move the others."

She peeked through the window watching as several young rabbits gathered around a bed warmed by the hearth they had sat at.

"Purple eyes? What mammal has purple eyes? She is beautiful, what shall we call her, Jeremy?"

" **Violet** , the same as the amulet and her eyes."

Grace smirked as she fled into the darkness again, carrying two more who had never lived a mortal life into the world….

**Notes; Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld are the three fates who lived under the Yggdrasil tree in Norse mythology. In Greek mythology they were also known as the fates and shared a single eye. The name Urd means what once was. The name Verdandi means what is. The name Skuld means what shall be. They are the same as the fates in Greek mythology, they see the past, present and future. They stole the eye from the waters of Knowledge and Mimir. Mimir was the guardian of the waters of knowledge who Odin traded his eye to for wisdom. As punishment for stealing from him, Mimir blinded them and they could no longer see without the eye- that is part of this story and not Norse mythology.**

**The Valkyries in Asgard were handmaidens to the gods, warriors who fought for the gods, and messengers. They collected the souls of the lost and the gods decided where each soul would go to, under the tree of life (Yggdrasil tree) to Hell, or to Valhalla (Heaven). They were said to be daughters of royalty, and lovers to heroes.**

**When the egg cracked, the waters within it flooded the world and put the fires out. It also reset the world to create new life born from the fire and water that destroyed it. Keep in mind these eggs were taken in by the tree of life after Loki cut off part of Heimdall's nose. The eggs hold DNA from mammals. Odin placed something from each god inside the eggs, but the eggs themself came from Heimdall’s nose and are part of him.**

**The Valkyries were cast out in this story by Odin after being the cause of many wars through lust. Heimdall is the God in Norse mythology who created social structure and the separation of social classes among citizens. The Tiers of civilization- working class, middle class, upper class, royalty, etc. Everything that unravels after Robin Hood's death.**

**Loki did not steal the Ozaruki, Heimdall shoved them into his brother's soul along with the eye he'd once swallowed with his last dying breath, knowing it was the only way to keep his father from bringing the other Gods back. It was his last-ditch effort to save his brother, knowing the future he had seen would be a difficult path, if not impossible. It was his last effort made for things to work, stopping Odin from changing things when he received the power the 'creature' had given him after she lost hope and gave up after losing Loki.**

**Before the light, before life, before the Gods, there was another who ruled over everything and still does….It will remain, when all others are gone….It is not evil. It is pure and true and holds more power than anyone gives it credit for. It moves everything - It simply is. It is not seen, though it is everywhere, and takes many forms, it is more than the one thing people believe it is. It will follow the same path it has always been on, but has a voice that has never been, or ever will be heard. That does not mean, it cannot, or will not do what is in its nature, and affect change in one form, or another. Time; they say it has no mercy. Think that depends on what, how, or _who_ you choose to see it as….**


	26. Broken Arrows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A light in the darkness-

**Broken Arrows**

Avicii- Broken Arrows

Several rabbits crowded around a large mattress made of straw and covered in thick linens. The old doe in the bed took a deep breath as she opened her eyes, smiling lightly at the rabbits standing around her bed. "No long faces today. This day will be of celebration."

The doe closest to her took a seat shaking her head. "What death warrants a celebration, Mother?"

The older doe chuckled as the glasses on her nose slipped. "You do not mourn death, you celebrate the life death created."

When the young doe frowned and turned her brow down the older doe tried to push herself up and sighed when her strength failed her. "This is just a pattern. That is all the world is. Some people see it as a circle, some people see it as an end. The Divine is always waiting for us to return."

The younger doe looked up as her siblings and cringed. "Mother Violet, no one believes the things you say."

The older doe smirked as she nodded. "No one believed in the Christian or Catholic God either, yet, he seems to be everywhere does he not?" The doe frowned as her mother raised a brow. Violet shook her head and sighed as she reached behind her neck and undid the twine that held a pendant. The younger doe shook her head as she passed it to her.

"Mother, I can't ta-

"You are my oldest child. You are the one with purple eyes. Pass it to your daughter, your first born, or the one who has purple eyes. It makes no difference. Tell them off my stories." The younger doe looked back and saw her siblings shifting uncomfortably and the older doe chuckled again. "I am aware that they all think I am a witch. That my stories may seem insane and that they believe me to be….a soothsayer."

"You are a soothsayer, Mother."

The older doe looked at the amulet and shook her head. "I was nothing without that pendant. My mother and father saw it as a blessing. I suppose in a way to them it was. They brought mammals from town to see me, took me to see other mammals. I could see what they asked for if they let me touch them, but it has never worked for anyone but me. It is a pretty stone, but I am grateful none of my children had the gift of sight. It made life difficult for all of you."

The doe looked back at her siblings and nodded. "I will tell them, Mother."

"Good." The older doe sighed as she shifted her eyes. The doe sitting on the bed turned as her mother's eyes stared out the window. Her ears rose and her back straightened as all her siblings turned, several of them stepping back as a large black bird sat on a branch looking into the room. The older doe chuckled as her daughter turned back to her. "Do you know what a Raven is?" The young doe looked at her siblings and nodded with a curious expression on her face while she tried not to look concerned. Violet chuckled as she shook her head. "A bird yes, but they are said to be omens of death. Ravens. Very Graceful creatures." The younger doe cringed as her mother snickered. "I dreamt of a….. I can't remember what species he was. Ugh, no matter. He was a miserable soul. I looked into his future and saw nothing but death and grief, sorrow more unbearable than any one life should live. He asked me for advice on how to change it and I looked again. There was no action he could take that would change it, not one life he would live would be any different. So, he asked me to do something for him, to tell his story."

"Mother, I don't think that is really..."

She put her paw up shaking her head. "I do not need to tell his story. He will write it himself in one of his lives, it will be well known long after we are gone. It shall be called The Raven. It was a horrible thing the way he grew in that life. His mother was…a working lady. He had an older brother and a small sister when she became ill with a common disease. His father left them and they found him dead of the same illness within a few days of their mothers death." She sighed as she laid her paws over her chest. "In the future there will be a treatment for it like there are so many that kill us now. He watched his mother dying. They came to check on her but…no one is sure how long they had been there with her body after she died. It had a rather profound effect on the way he thought. His family wanted his Brother and sister but no one wanted him. What will his name be…"

"Mother, it isn't really-

"Edgar. His name will be Edgar." The rabbits twisted their heads as the old doe pulled something from under her pillow. "Everyone will see his story. You must make sure this part of it is saved so it is not lost to our family."

The doe shook her head as her mother pulled some old paper out and passed it to her. "Why would we need to know this for anything, Mother?"

Violet shook her head and frowned. "I am not sure. I just know that it is important."

"It is?" She shook her head with curled brows as her mother sighed.

"It will be. It is my writing. Keep them together, somewhere our family will always be able to find them. My father said the day I was born he went to fetch my mother water after he had brought me back to her. There was a raven in the tree above the well. He said he swore the thing smiled at him before it flew away." The younger doe nodded as she unrolled them and looked them over.

"A poem? And these are…" the doe gasped and nearly dropped them as her mother snickered again.

"It is the part of the poem he did not write in his life in the many dreams I had of him. A part that I saw only in my mind. The rest is something I only know will be important to our family at some point. They will be given to the ones who will truly change this world. He said a raven knocked upon his door, the shadow carries nevermore."

The younger doe held it up and ticked her cheek as she read what her mother had written.

**"The Valkyries will fall from heaven, for two more six, and one more seven,**

**For naming that which had no name, for branding an Eternal flame**

**For Lenore is thy bit of sorrow, the thing that causes all the morrows**

**Upon Pan’s door the stone shall stay and Peter shall be lost in way**

**Stones of sand and clay will wear, a solid rock all sorrow bares**

**Lenore hides in ever shadow, Grace will be her broken arrow**

**They shall bring forth time again, new life in death that never ends**

**Neverland be lost in lore, if the tail is never born.**

**Wonderland will be no more, hope for future all forlorn.**

**Death will find each mortal face, if firstborn son determines Fate**

**His bride be all but angel true, their children of all darkness knew**

**Peter will find hope anew, with Fate decided by her few**

**Yet once he has been cast in stone, Lenore shall be left alone**

**Grace shall have no timely fame, all be lost in unheard names**

**If a curse is not dispelled, no difference lies in heaven/hell**

**Neverland will be no more, if no hope found, for poor Lenore,**

**And Darkness shall be ever more, if raven says it; Nevermore."**

The older doe took another breath and looked up at her oldest daughter smiling. “The last two verses don’t look like they belong here mother. Who is Loki and why is the one named Judy referred to as-

“SHUSH. Never read that aloud. They will be revealed after they are needed.” The younger doe sighed a rolled them up as her mother laid her paws down again. "When your eldest daughter is born. Give it to her, tell her it must go to those who save our family. It must be given to them as a payment for all they do, along with the other things I have given you. You will bloom much later in life, but you will have children. Your first daughter's name will be Sissy."

"Mother, I am too old, you know that is…" she sniffled as her siblings lowered their ears.

"You will. I named you Hope, for a reason. The moment you were in my arms I saw your daughter. I saw her wearing a crown. I saw every daughter first born in that same crown, wearing that pendant. Until there was a darkness that crept into the light and I lost sight of the path. As if it were…no longer there, it was not difficult to see, it was as if…time stopped. You will have children, in fifteen years’ time she will be born, because I said it will be so." Violet closed her eyes and her head fell to the side in a content expression.

"Goodbye, Mother. Until we meet again in the Divine."

"HEEEEEY!" Hope and her siblings turned as the door flew open. "The midwife!" Hope stood and raised her brow. The doe, her siblings, and the young bear who had crashed through the door all ducked and scrambled when the raven that had been outside the window cawed as it flew around the room. Hope stood, steadying her heart as the bird landed on her mother's chest. All the rabbits in the room gaped and stepped away as it shot its wings out wide.

The bird ticked its head and the young bear in the door as he backed away. "Death is upon your door."

"Nevermore, Nevermore." The bird yelled before it shot out the window.

They all stood trying to catch their breath as the young bear shook his head. "The witch has died. Maybe I should fetch the Steward."

Hope shook her paws and stepped out the door, closing it behind her. "You came for a reason, little John. A midwife? I am the only one here for miles." The young bear squirmed nervously as she shook her head. "There is no such thing as magic, curses, ghosts, bad omens, witches and whatever else you may be thinking. I can only help someone who needs me if I know where I am to be going?"

He looked at the door and twisted a foot in the ground as he dipped his head. "Mrs. Whood."

Hope nodded and went back inside, leaving the door open. "Let me gather my things." The doe grabbed a basket and shot her siblings a stern glare. "Make the preparations." She handed the basket to the little bear and told him to wait before she closed the door. "She was your mother too. The least you could do is help me with her final rights. I do not care what everyone thinks and if you cannot show the decency to help with this, you did not deserve any mother at all. I have to go. I should be back by morning light." She stepped out the door, faking a smile as the little bear held her basket up. "Such a responsible little boy, John. They sent you all the way to fetch me?" The bear smiled and nodded. She giggled as he took hold of her paw. "How old will you be this year?"

"I will be eight!" The doe laughed at his excitement as they made their way.

He kept hold of her paw as they reached a little cottage. The little bear's ears tipped back as screaming rang through the air. The doe rushed inside telling him to stay where he was. Entering the little Den, her eyes adjusted to the low lighting and she caught sight of the father rocking back and forth as his mate screamed again. "Mr. Whood, please go out and keep little John company." The fox looked at her and back to his mate as she ground her teeth together and howled. "This is no place for a gentleman Mr. Whood. It is inappropriate for you to stay." The tod nodded sharply before he stepped out the door and closed it behind himself. Hope stepped to the bed as the vixen cried out again. "Sylvia I want you to breath like I showed you."

"I can't- something is wrong!"

"This is normal, Sylvia." The doe did a quick examination and turned her head slightly as the vixen groaned again.

"I knew something was wrong!"

Hope nodded as she looked back to the door. "I am sorry Sylvia, but I am going to need your mates help.”

She opened the door and stepped out as the tod shot up. "I am afraid you are going to have to help, or they will all be lost." The tod cringed and stepped back in with her, nervously biting his cheek as she instructed him on where he needed to be and what he needed to do. Hope stood at the end of the bed as the tod cradled his mate against his chest. "Turn away if you cannot look, but do not let go of her under any circumstance." He nodded as the vixen looked between them. "Sylvia, your first baby is turned the wrong way. I have to turn him, he is not positioned correctly." The doe handed her mate a small piece of wood before she rolled up her sleeves. "Bite down on it. Do not let go of her." The tod winced as she rolled up her sleeves…

The little bear outside cringed and had his ears flipping up and down as the vixen inside screamed. After a harsh hissing and groaning all the noise stopped as the bear tipped his head and stood up, curiously opening the door. The rabbit seated at the end of the bed had something small in her arms and appeared to be moving around in a frantic motion as the vixen's head hung. Her mate looked her over and shook his head. "Sylvia?"

A whip sounded through the air as the doe smacked the little fox on the rear after clearing all his airways. The little bear jerked as something caught his eye and he turned shaking his head as a raven sat on the arm of the chair he’d once been in. "CAW!" He jumped as it took off into the air and watched it circling above the little home.

Hope flipped the kit up and cringed as his head fell to one side. The tod still seated behind his mate was looking between them shaking his head. Hope looked back at him trying to bite back her tears. The doe swallowed as the tod closed his eyes and turned his head. She returned her attention to the little tod in her arms and held him close as her arms curled around him. "I am so sorry, Mr. Whood." The fox leaned into his mate jostling as Hope looked back at the little bundle and sighed. She sat with her head hanging as she covered the infant and laid him on the bed with his mother, both of them lost in childbirth.

The little bear outside stepped back with wide eyes as the Raven seemed to dive bomb towards the little den. He looked around shaking his head as it disappeared into the Earth above the roof.

Hope curled her brow and jumped as a large bird dove through the straw above forming a roof over the open part of the den. She shook her head as it flew back out as quickly as it had appeared. Her attention was immediately back on the bed when she heard a tiny gasp. The tod watched her grab the little bundle and furiously start rubbing his back before unwrapping the kit and pressing against his chest, blinking as his fingers curled. The doe turned and was frantically running her paws along his back and chest until he sucked in a deep breath of air and wailed.

Hope almost laughed. She turned seeing the tod still holding his lost mate, sitting stunned as he blinked. His eyes had spilled over while his ears trained on her. The doe held up the kit and the tod jostled in a hiccupping whine as she stepped closer and laid him in his father's arm. There was a horrid mixture of joy and despair in the room as the fox curled one arm close, holding his son and laid his head on his wife's, weeping for the mate he’d lost and overjoyed at the only kit who’d survived.

Hope took the child and tended to him as his father made funeral arrangements. He came back and sat in a chair almost mechanically as he looked at the doe holding his son. The bunny stood and walked to him smiling, and held his arm out before she laid him in his arms. "Mr. Whood."

The doe smiled and dipped her head to him before she stepped to the door. "You are leaving?"

"Forgive me, Mr. Whood. I am afraid I must tend to my mother's arrangements this day as well."

"It has truly been a day of death has it not?" He asked.

She ticked her cheek up looking back at the kit he was holding. "And a day of life, Mr. Whood. Have you a name chosen?""

The fox looked up at her with tears in his eyes as he ticked them back and forth between her and his son. "A dark day, and a day of life. A light in all the darkness….. Robert."

She smiled as she tipped her head again. "You know where to find me should you need any help, I'll send the steward over and arrange for a wet nurse for you." The fox nodded blankly as he held his son tighter and the doe smiled as she watched him run his muzzle along the tiny kit's head and laughed as the infant whined. She stepped out the door and closed it finding the little bear peeking from behind a tree. "John, why are you still here?"

The little bear looked away with his ears pinned back as he stepped to her. "Lady Sylvia is gone?" Hope nodded as she folded her paws in front of herself. "Why?"

Hope sighed as she shook her head. "It just happens sometimes. That is the way of the world. Travel home John. It is late and your parents will worry if you are not there before night falls."

The bear scrunched his nose and looked at her frowning. "But the kit…he will be alone?"

"No, he has his father. If you are worried about him being alone perhaps you should come and see him when he gets a little older, so he will have a friend too. Ask your mother to send him some help. I must reach the steward so he can arrange a wetnurse."

"Mamma still has milk from my little sister!"

Hope giggled as the little bear jumped up and down. "Maybe you will get to spend more time with him than I thought if she agrees to that. Let me know by morning if she agrees." The bear smiled before he shot off, running towards his own home. The bunny stepped around the corner and back onto the path, tripping as a dark figure swooped in front of her. She shielded her face with her arms and looked up shaking her head as a Raven perched in a tree above her.

The bird tipped its head looking at her. "Evermore, evermore."

She rushed back to her home and slammed the door behind her, reaching into her pocket, pulling out the little pendant and grabbed the papers her mother had given her, seating herself at the window as she watched her siblings start the fires that would return their mother to the Earth. "Ever more…" she whispered as she looked at the little pendant and tied it around her neck. "Not Never more, Ever more." The doe stood and gathered her strength before she walked out of the little farmhouse and joined her siblings. She kept her head held high as several sneered at her or moved away from where she stood. Two of her brothers carried the body of her mother out before setting it on the pier. The small flames that had licked up the sides of the bundled twigs ignited in a large flame after she placed a bundle under the fire. She stepped back and swept her eyes around as her siblings leaned into each other whispering. The doe let her ears fall as they all shook their heads frowning and scowling. A few went so far as to look at her and shake their heads as another rabbit stepped beside her. She looked over her shoulder catching a breath that spilled out as a whimper when another doe took ahold of her paw. Her siblings stormed away in a huff of disgust as the other doe lifted her head high and looked at them smirking.

Hope wiped her face off, giggling as the doe beside her squeezed her paw. "Do not listen to them, Hope. It makes no difference what they see, it only matters what you see. What I see."

Hope dropped her eyes to the ground as she overheard her siblings leaving, a few of the things they were saying she’d heard more than a few times about their own mother. She felt the other doe pull her lightly as she looked up. The flames had taken her mother into the sky as she turned again, following the doe after seeing her siblings leave grumbling. Once inside she stepped away as she closed the door. "Becka, you should not have come on this day." Hope said as her eyes stayed on the floor.

The doe stepped in front of her and Hope leaned into her paw as she cupped her cheek. "That is why I come on this day. I will be your comfort, when those who should be fallaway. Your mother lived a very long life. It was a lonely life. I will not watch the one I love be left the same way." The doe hiccupped as she was pulled into Becka's arms. "Did she give you any words of wisdom before she flew?"

Hope giggled as she wiped her face away. "Funny you should mention birds. She said it again, that I would have children."

Becka stood a little straighter and squared her shoulders. "Perhaps you are meant to have a sire, because your mate cannot give you such a thing." Hope looked up at her slack jawed as she smiled. "I love you, if it is children you wish to have, do you think I would not accept them as ours?"

"But, we…."

Becka tipped her ears forward and nodded. "No one would think twice about it. Your family may know of us, but we would remain hidden to the rest of the world. Maybe your mother was right and in the future others like us will not have to hide. If you did conceive, I could stay here with you, as your servant. There are always more does than bucks. It would be acceptable to the community this way." Hope swallowed as her eyes burned. She shot forward being wrapped in the other does arms and buried her nose in her neck, sighing heavily as Becka pet her ears and nuzzled her cheek. "We can teach our children that family comes in all shapes and forms, and love has no boundaries. I love you…." They wrapped around each other tighter as Hope opened her eyes and caught a shadow outside the window. The doe sobbed as the Raven sat in the tree, ticking its head back and forth. It almost looked as if it smiled before it shifted like it became a waft of smoke as its wings lifted. Hope shook it off, curling into her mate as she closed her eyes. The form outside the window smirked as dark wings lifted her before she dove into the shadows again….

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A vixen screamed as King Richard scrunched his shoulders, pacing the room outside. The lion lifted a brow and scrunched his nose as a Raven flew in, chuckling as it hopped along the floor past the curtains that covered the birthing room. “Oh a sign of good fortune! I will have many nieces and nephews!”

His ears set as the midwife came out giggling. “How many are there?” he asked almost giddy as she unfolded the blanket, showing the little foxes as he laughed excitedly.

“We had good fortune. Almost lost this little one.” She churred as she gently pulled one from the folds, placing the tiny vixen in his massive paws.

King Richard chuckled. “I swore to her husband I would care for them after he was lost in battle. How is the new mother.”

The midwife giggled as he pet the little vixen, watching him chuckle as she purred in his paw. “She is well, very tired.”

The lion sighed and chewed his lip looking at the midwife and took a deep breath. “Has she named them? I know the fathers usually do that with foxes.”

“Only the little one we almost lost. She said it was some kind of tradition in her family. To name them merry on the day they were born. She said the others were yours to name for all you have done for the family. This one is Marion.”

“Marion. What a bright little Lady you will be.” He purred as he pet the little vixen in his paw. King Richard bowed his head chuckling as he handed the little vixen back to the midwife and watched as she folded them back into the blanket before she slipped back behind the curtain of the room. The raven that had hopped in on the floor slipped out from under the curtain and jumped to a window, throwing its wings out and cawing as the king bowed significantly. “Thank you, for the good fortune.”

The bird spread its wings and its feathers fluffed out before it took off out the window, leaving him standing their grinning as he heard the fox kits fussing. “STEWARD! CALL THE WINE MAKER WHOOD! WE ARE IN NEED OF ALE TO CELEBRATE!”

**Notes; Robert Whood is later renamed and known as Robin Hood. The doe who is delivering him is the mother of Sissy and Skippy. The ones he later takes as his own children. This is how Robert Whood/Robin Hood met Maid Marion through King Richard. In the original story, she was thought to be the Kings niece.**

**For anyone who is not a poet and doesn't catch the reference. Edgar Allen Poe wrote the Raven. Each line fits into the story but the original poem was not used, only a- nod to it through another short poem.**

**The name Lenore means torch, light, and bright. It is a shortened form of Elenore. This is the name the Valkyries gave to the Spark of creation - Odin called it the creature. The poem references a number of things that may not be understood by someone unfamiliar with the wording. Gilead was an area east of the Jordan River but in this case it is referring to Gileed; a heap of stones- piles of testimony. Headstones, or the ten commandments- _something carved in stone._ **

**Plutonian is referencing the underworld and death, it is also the ninth body in our solar system. Pallas can be referring to astronomy mythology, people, or ships. It's also the name of a Greek God but not what it is referring to.**

**A broken arrow is nodding at the short story/fable of Aesop. His sons fought constantly. He told them if they could break the bundle of arrows/sticks whoever accomplished this feat would get his kingdom. None could break them bundled together so their father took them apart and snapped each one. The lesson was that they were stronger together than apart.**

**Lady Marion Wild, her family is descended from the vixen Heimdall and Loki placed in a tower to protect her while she was waiting for her true love. "Name her merry on that day." They're all connected through Time. Something that's impossible to see when we're only a small piece of it, live in the moment, and can't see if it isn't pointed out.**


	27. The First Fox King; King Arthur

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> twisted history

**The First Fox King; King Arthur**

Paul McCartney; Hope for The Future (Hate it)

The vixen laughed as she was snatched around the waste and flew through the air with the red fox holding her. She giggled when he set her on the ledge as he looked back over the scattered clanking of swords. "Back to it, my Lady." He smirked as he tipped his head.

She grabbed him rumbling as she pressed her lips to his. "Come back to us my love. I will give you a son!"

"How could I not with that kind of incentive!?"

The red fox shot back into the crowd below as she waved a white piece of fabric around. He landed next to a bear and shook his head before he threw one sword up and was dueling with a large wolf. "King Arthur! Is that what they call you, you worthless pelt! A peasant from how you move is all I see!" The wolf growled as the fox snickered. They glared at each other before he smirked and threw his sword higher, shoving the wolf back again.

"They have called me many things but that is not one I have heard."

"You don't belong in these lands! They do not belong to you or the worthless nobles we battle here. It is our right to claim the throne as they all squabble over what shall be ours."

"Their king sent for me before he died. My king seems to think I am worthy as do the nobles you have brought together through tyranny." He twisted again as he rolled under the larger canine and they were both baring their teeth as they clinked swords again.

"You bring an army of worthless rabbits with you, prey and predator alike who have no business here! Just as worthless as the fox who claims them!"

"They are not worthless, can you not see how the numbers rise against you?" the wolf glared at him as he shook his head and the fox smirked when the wolf looked around at all the mammals battling around them. Numbers had dwindled for the other side and the wolf ground his teeth in a harsh growl as he used his weight to throw him off the other direction. The fox's eyes went wide as the wolf grabbed a rabbit around the throat and held her high as she kicked her feet out in a thrash. "SISSY!"

"FEMALES! You bring females into battle with all these other prey mammals you have fighting for you. Give me a female and I will show you how to drop any species that believe they are above the ways in the world. Drop your sword or I will snap her neck like a twig between my teeth, fox!"

The red fox tossed his sword away and grit his teeth as the bunny struggled against the large paw wrapped around her. The wolf motioned to the jackal leading their group and he picked up the sword, looking it over before he shot back into the fighting with it. "Ha! That is why you will lose!" The red fox in front of him smirked as the bunny dropped her weight and fell limp.

A vixen swung in from a higher landing and the wolf hissed as he clutched his side, after the sword she was wielding sliced under his raised arm, loosening the grip on the rabbit the vixen snatched her from him and swung back to the other side giggling. "My Love!" She shouted after she landed and he threw his paw in the air, catching the sword she had thrown to him.

The bunny beside the vixen rubbed her neck as she rolled her shoulders. "Are you hindered little Sister?"

She asked and giggled as the bunny jumped several times. “Why do you call me that mother?”

The vixen giggled as the bunny kissed her cheek before she clutched two daggers, grinning maniacally and dove from the ledge back into the fray. She shook her head as she watched the doe grab the horns of an antelope and kick her feet into his face before she shot the other way, barely being missed by the blade he was swinging. "Lucky little feet they have, our little Hopps do."

"RETREAT!" A loud rally cry shot out over the crowd as the vixen beamed.

The mammals who were fighting all raised their swords and screamed as those who could still move fled. The fox smirked as he looked around and laughed as many of the mammals looked at him. He raised his sword in the air glowing as he screamed. "ALL FOR ONE!"

"AND ONE FOR ALL!" The crowd of mammals rallied around him as they held their swords high. The fox looked around and smiled broader as a large brown bear stood above many others, and shuffled through the crowd until he got to the fox. He dipped his head lower and dropped his brow.

"We got a problem, Rob." The red fox set his ears as he ducked behind the bear where they could talk. "We can't find the other sword."

"They have searched already?" he asked as he kept his voice low and looked around as the bear nodded.

"That ain't all that's missing, Rob." The red fox snapped his eyes back to the bear as his head hung. "We had another group go chasing after the ones that got away. There's about two dozen of ours missing."

"Ours?" the fox asked as his face fell.

The bear nodded as he sighed. "Half are yours."

Robin shook his head as he looked up and saw the vixen searching the crowd as he swallowed. "Who, and does she know?"

The bear shook his head sadly as he sighed. "She doesn't know yet. Sissy, Christopher, Rachel, Thomas, Violet…" he continued through the list and the red foxes face dropped in horror before they snapped back at him in rage.

"Do we know who he was? Who was leading all this?"

"No Rob, but the captured said it was the first time he had ever lost. All we know is that he was a Jackal. They've been calling him Attila. Guess he thought if he wasn't going to win, he would take something as a…"

The fox shook his head as he closed his eyes and held his paws up, ceasing the bear as his jaw clenched several times. "He has one of my swords. Scourge of Gods. I'll tell her, you need to get them home after this is cleaned up."

"Rob?" Little John asked as his ears flipped back.

"They are mine, Little John. It doesn't matter what they call me in this land. I will not leave them to fend for themselves."

"You got little ones waiting, Rob. We've already been far from home for more than a year with this battle. This guy is said to be able to sail the seas and overtake any kingdom."

"Marion will understand and the girls are young enough they won't. It took us many years to have kits, Little John. I am grateful for them, but it doesn't change the fact that the bunnies are ours as well. No matter how much they have grown. They are still my kits. I'll not leave them to the paws of someone like this."

The bear shook his head as he watched the fox search the hillside. "Marion!? Wherefore art thou!?"

She stuck her head over the side of a small ledge and waved her handkerchief at him. "Here Love!"

The bear dropped his head and turned as the fox climbed up the vines along the sides of the hill until he reached the vixen. Little John turned his cheeks up as he watched the vixen's knees give out while the red fox held her in his arms.

"I will find them. I will search the world if need be, until we are all together again, Marion." She nodded as he let several rabbits overwhelm her in a tight embrace. Little John shook his head as he watched the fox gather several of the other rabbits around her.

A blue-eyed buck squared his shoulders and ground his teeth together as he clenched the sword at his hip in one paw. "Little John?" The bear looked down at him cringing as he stood taller. "They took my brothers and sisters. A few who got away said they boarded a ship on the eastern waters. We need a ship to go after them. Can you arrange it with the locals?"

The bear looked around and ran a paw over his head. "I do not think it will be a problem. But they are not going to be happy if Rob is going with you, Skippy. They have all given in to him being the king here and call him Arthur because this battle nearly tore the land apart before they all had to come together against this with him. Elizabeth will not be pleased."

Skippy frowned and shook his head. "She's a strong doe. My kits will be fine with her until we return. They have their Grandmother's blood in them so they will survive as we all have."

"I don't think purple eyes are going to make a difference in the place of their father's absence, Skippy."

"They have the eyes of the Gods just as some of my brothers and sisters' kits have and will have. It will be enough to see us all through."

Little John tipped his head as he headed into the crowd to search for a suitable ship….

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Several years of searching had led Robin back to the vixen with a heavy heart, and though his mate and children were overjoyed at his return, they all mourned the loss of the bunnies they’d taken as part of their family. He was welcomed to a new land as a king, his mate and daughters had been running in his absence. The red fox was growing weary from heart ache as he was approached by a long-furred yak who wore the robes of other lands with secrets laid under hidden eyes, behind the thick stands of tangled fur. "If you wish to know the fate of your children, your children's children, you must travel to the loch in the next land. There you will find the darkest waters and from the depth within them, call upon the monster who swims the places no one dares to venture."

"Who are you?"

"I am Merlin. The monster that dwells within the waters can be called upon by shouting her name. If you are worthy, she will appear and grant you what you wish for." The red fox rolled his eyes as he sat upon a throne he’d been given. When his eyes returned to the audience that had requested him, no one stood before him any longer.

He fought with the idea for several days until he finally went to his mate and told her of what had happened. The vixen lowered in front of him as his weary eyes looked down at her. She held out the parchment to him and shook her head. "This land is not so far that it would take you from us for long. We are not meant to have any more, losing them has weighed heavy on all our hearts. Go, find out what has become of our lost children."

Marion sent him off after their daughters had packed several days’ worth of provisions, and the fox loaded into a carriage as several bunnies stood with one of the daughters he and his mate had brought into the world. A blue-eyed buck climbed in beside him and he chuckled as a doe held up several tiny bunnies he was petting and saying goodbye to, before the fox waved at his daughters and mate. "Do you plan on stopping anytime soon, son?" he asked as they pulled away.

The buck looked at him smiling as he sighed. "Elizabeth wants a large family. I don't see a problem with it as long as I can keep feeding them, more to love anyway."

The fox chuckled as he leaned back in the seat. "True. It would be a shame to lose any more than we have and not bring forward more. But at some point, perhaps you should find something else to distract you so you can continue to feed them?"

"Dancing, perhaps?" The buck nodded as they settled, spending several days together as they traveled the countryside until they reached a large body of water. "What is it you know of this?" He asked as the fox sat up and looked out the carriage window after the driver had let them know they had arrived.

"Only what the wizard said, Skippy."

"Wizard?" the buck asked as he shook his head.

"I can't think of anything else to call him, he vanished as if he were nothing more than a shadow. He said that it wasn't the water that was Mystical here, but the creature that lived within it. That she could travel to any water in any land and become whatever she chose to be, give you whatever you wished if she thought you worthy."

"How will she know if one is worthy?"

"I am not sure. Only that it will be a test I must pass, a journey I must make alone." The buck stepped out hesitantly behind him and was wringing his hat in his paw as the fox looked back at him smirking. "I will be fine. This is family, and it is more important than anything else." The buck sighed as he nodded and watched as the fox disappeared into a wooded grove.

Robin traveled for several days until he reached a large lake. Pristine water as blue and crystal clear as that of any tropic front had him looking around in awe at the hidden oasis he’d traveled to. He stood at the edge of the waters and unfurled the paper that had appeared in his paw when the yak had vanished.

"I CALL YOU! MONSTER OF THE LOCH! LADY OF THE LAKE! COME TO ME IN ALL YOUR _GRACE_!" The ground under his feet shook as the earth rumbled, the pristine water in front of him swirled and turned black as night as it churned, sending waves crashing high and spraying over him. The fox fell back as a dark form appeared in front of him, curling out of the water like a great serpent and hovering above the water before it shifted. The shape became pronounced as he scrambled backwards on the sand below his feet. "WHAT MANNER OF DRAGON HAVE I CALLED FORTH!"

The shape shifted into that of a large fox towering under the trees as it dipped its head lower, and he shivered as he looked into black eyes that held nothing. "Dragon, fox, I am what I choose to be, as large or small as you choose to make me, what form would you have me take with such insults you throw upon me!?"

The red fox blinked as he got back to his feet and bowed his head as the figure above him narrowed its hollow eyes. "Forgive me, Lady. I am not accustomed to being in the presence of one so revered as a God."

"I am no God!" she hissed.

His ears flipped back as he shied his eyes away from the darkness that squinted in front of him. "Begging your pardon, great lady. I was told you were the only one who may help me in a quest I have failed."

"Quest?" she asked with a flat voice as he dipped his head again.

"That you could grant any wish I would ask if I could prove myself worthy of your audience. The wizard Merlin told me of you."

"It will cost you more than you may be willing to pay. King Arthur, master of the round table and soul heir to the throne under King Richard should his bloodline fail. Robin Hood, master of thieves and son of a fox who only found his way to nobility through the grains he grew."

The fox blinked as he curled his brow. "How can you know of such things? I have not been called by that name for many years and never in this land that I now rule."

"You have no secrets from me, as no one else ever shall."

"Then you already know why I am here and are wasting my time!"

The dark figure growled as she dipped lower, and he kept his teeth locked in a snarl as she shrank to his size, landing in front of him tilting her head. "You wish to know the fate of the rabbits lost, known as Hopps in your first lands, lost to the war to free this land."

"Yes." He spat as he glared at the darkness swirling around her.

"It is a heavy price you ask to pay and will cost you the thing you have desired more than all."

"What I desire is to know the fate of my children!"

"They are not your children. A fox can never sire a rabbit into the world and if I give you the information you ask of me it will cost you the heir to your throne."

"Heir? A son…that no one would oppose because the councils have…."

The dark figure in front of him lost its form as it swirled around him. "A son, that would keep the foxes in power. Never to be questioned as they go through history about their place in the world. Always revered and loved by others."

The fox shook his head as he watched the dark waft of smoke swirling around him and frowned heavily as he shook his head and spat at it. "This is not a test I will fail! I will not forsake my children for that of a possibility that may be caused through something dark and leave them to the wickedness of the world! If they are in need of my help it is my duty as a father to find them again!"

"You would give up this future, just to see their Fate, to find where they are?"

"Yes," he growled as the billowing black around him curled back together in front of him and took the shape of a fox again.

"Why would you do this for rabbits? They are not your kind."

He growled and grit his teeth as he spoke through tight lips. "They are more than rabbits! They are mine!"

"You feel they belong to you? As pets perhaps? Like the little lizards and snakes your true children care for? Or is it merely that the armor they gave you will not function without all the pieces intact? Perhaps you only wish to regain it so you have the power you once wielded? Even now you wear it as if you wish for its strength again."

"Foolish beast! I wear it to honor them! If you know all and can see all you would know that is not why I wish to find them! If you believe I have traveled and searched for them all this time for nothing other than keeping them as fodder I can claim under a crown of lies, you are nothing but the hollow creature that stands before me!"

The dark figure bowed slightly in front of him before she stood and lifted her head. "Would you be willing to lose this crown for them?"

"You already know my answer, Witch. Whatever you are, keep your black heart. I will not stop looking for them with or without your help." He turned clenching his fists and stopped as she swooped in front of him.

"Wait…. Forgive me my liege." The fox stopped with a lowered brow as she dipped in front of him as if on her knees. "The price for their whereabouts is that no one will ever know the name of King Arthur as anything other than a fairy tale. This kingdom will disappear from history and all will fall as if it had never taken place. The name of Robin Hood will go through history as revered and loved, but there will be no king under this forgotten kingdom. Your daughters will take the council under King Richard after your death and return to the lands they came from. The children you have taken under your wing will spread over many lands. The round table will be split in half, ten to each side, until all are reunited. Your family will come together again at the beginning or end of all. And their fate is unknown even to me."

"How is it you cannot see this when you have stolen every secret I and all others have had?"

"We cannot see past the choices we make. One who lives cannot see the next moment of life, for it is unwritten and can be changed. I cannot see past the choices I would make. I must hope that I will make the right choices. If you truly want to see their Fate, it will cost you these things and drain what little life you have left, but a reward will also be given at its price, Sire."

"Show me. Lady of the lake, Please…."

**Notes; Most notes for this chapter are in the next chapter as it was split- But the name Arthur means Courageous - Stone – and bear – hehehe - The story in this chapter is what Rose told the boys in the second chapter of Black and White. King Arthur and Excalibur are just a 'story' and believed to be a myth. But this is how there was actually a first fox king and he was Robin Hood/Robert Whood. No one has put the connection together in Zootopia that he's referenced as being the first fox king, but there is no explanation of why he's called that with no record of it happening or being a fact.**


	28. Excalibur and Joan Of Arc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> History is never what its known as, certainly not in the way my head twisted it-

**Excalibur and Joan Of Arc**

Cindy Lauper; Time After Time

Falling In Reverse; The Drug In Me

The black formed vixen stood as he straightened his back. She held her paws out towards him and he tilted his head hesitantly as he laid his paws in hers. "Close your eyes, Robert of Loxley, Robin Hood, King Arthur of the round table. Do not open them under any circumstance as I show you their way. The two paths cannot cross. Breathe deeply and look with more than just your eyes."

The fox closed his eyes, blowing out a breath and inhaled deeply as the form in front of him shifted and blew into him as the air he breathed in. He fell to his knees as the smoke clouded his lungs and curled his arms around himself, trying not to choke on it before his lips curled into a smile as he kept his eyes clamped shut and laughed. "They live…."

He watched as the ship they were thrown into was boarded by many angry mammals after a battle lost. The rabbits he’d taken in as his own used every clever trick he had taught them and escaped into a small rowboat after lulling the crew into a drunken stupor with the ales and malts they brewed on the ship. Something him and Marion had taught them over the years they had grown. "Christopher." He laughed as he shed several tears. One of the youngest of the litter. A boy he had spent many nights with, showing the stars, the young buck used them and the sky to navigate the waters with the little boat they had stolen away in until they lost their way in a storm and were shipwrecked on a foreign land. His brows curled as he watched the rabbits befriending several natives. All different species that were fighting among themselves, over land and territory, uncivilized by the standards they had set in other lands.

The ship that had stolen the rabbits was wrecked along another shore and within one or two of their generations the lands were ravaged by the jackal hell bent on claiming it as his own after the failure to take a kingdom known as Camelot. Taking advantage of them all bickering among themselves as he warred through the lands. The fox shuttered as several stood around after a few paw shakes and he watched the oldest doe saying goodbye to several kits that held her blue eyes with others who held that of the purple she had spoken of the night he brought them to the forest. "Sissy," he ground his teeth together and sobbed as he clenched his eyes together while she sacrificed herself for a greater good, bringing all the tribes together as they readied for a bloody battle with a tyrant destroying their lands. "Oh Gods..."

She left behind several kits as many of her brothers and sisters followed her ways, along with many other prey who joined them in their sacrifice. The tribes around them all revering the prey who gave their lives so others would have the strength to fight back an evil threatening to destroy them all. The fox coughed and tried to hold his chest steady as he watched the jackal wielding one of the swords they’d given him, leaving a path of death and destruction unseen to the new world before as he held it above his head roaring.

Several of the rabbits who’d grown came together with the mammals of the lands and gathered at a large body of water in a desperate attempt to end the war. He curled his face as he watched the same dark figure rise from the waters, making an agreement with them to help save their lands and their children. She stole into the waters they were trying to cross as the wolves led the jackal to what he believed would be another battle won. The darkness under the water pulled them under as they tried to cross, until it was still again. The dark form rose again as the bodies of the jackal and his army floated to the top of the lake. An older rabbit doe stood watching at the edge of a large waterfall and waited until the black shapeless form took the sword the rabbit held out. "Violet." He shuddered as he watched the dark creature take it, agreeing that if it would be returned to its rightful owner, she would give her life to make it so. He hacked several times and the blackness spilled from his lungs as he kept trying to cough it out through the sorrow.

"Open your eyes, Robert of Loxley."

He opened his red blood shot eyes on her as he fought to keep the drool from spilling from his mouth, growling through angry tear stained cheeks. "You evil spirit! What wretched fate have you set upon my children!"

"I have set none. They were simply given choices as all are. The choices they made were through your own teachings. Noble and brave, sacrifice for the good of all others. Are you not proud of why they made the choices? They have held true to every lesson you taught, and they will be loved through all history for it, as will the fox because of what you taught them, and other foxes who have loved them and touched their lives."

"You had them build a temple under the earth as if it were a burrow and a den! My eldest daughter was eaten! My youngest threw herself to you! If I am not to be remembered, why did they have to sacrifice so much for nothing!" He hissed as he sat on his knees, shaking his head as he fought back tears and bore his teeth at her.

"Because, Robert of Loxley. You are more than what you see, you are more than what the world sees. They are _truly yours_ , and you shall be the one who brings everything together again. Blood is thicker than water, and the blood that has run through your soul through each life you have lived has proven it. It will bind you all together for Eternity."

"You make no sense you crazy hag! How do I live knowing what I have taught them led to this fate!"

"I allowed you to see into the future, you must not live in the past. For it is the past to them. They are happy and settled in this new land and will be the greatest among their kind because of you. They will make the world a better place."

He shook his head coughing as he struggled to get off the ground and wiped the tears from his face. "The hell that you have brought us will never be undone! How can I tell my mate what fate awaits, even knowing they live!"

She flew in front of him as he kept his teeth locked in a heartbroken grimace. "I have no power over free will! Listen to the voices that have guided you thus far!" She shoved him and his arms flailed as he fell over the edge he’d been standing on. He flew back into the air as the sand kicked from his feet and hit the water hard as the darkness swirled around him. The fox was struggling for air as it was knocked from his lungs and curled his brow as something solid and cold hit his paw. The darkness fled as the sword glowed, and the rags he’d been wearing burned away the royal garments as they glowed so brightly he was nearly blinded. A warmth settled into his fur as the water around him swirled with images while the voices in his head told a story that had every trace of regret and fear leave him. _The name is known only as a whisper on the wind….. the winds of time blow through all life… Wild are the winds of time-_

His eyes snapped open as a rush of energy blew him out of the water in a spout as the sword lifted above his head and he sucked in a breath before he screamed. "LOKI IS A WILD!"

He was washed to the shore and laughed as he clutched the sword in his paw. The dark shadow that slid in front of him had him looking up as he shook his head grinning. "Gods! The children of our children will be Gods!"

The dark vixen in front of him tipped her head and he could barely make out the smile through the darkness she was. "Much more than simple Gods."

"I will see it?" He asked as she laughed in a hollow voice that sounded more like a hiss.

"I can only show you the first few years, for I cannot see past the time I return to. Tell the story of the God of Mischief. For all your children, even those not here know it well. I will guide you from the darkness back into the light, as I have already done and will do many more times, until you all meet again."

"Again?" he asked as he stood up and fell forward coughing as he braced a knee. The red fox looked at his fur seeing the grey streaks that had recently appeared and back to her as she dipped her head.

"It is a heavy price to pay, My King."

He shook his head, chuckling through the coughing he was fighting from the water that had gotten into his lungs. "I am no king to you, My Lady. You are all the Grace the world has ever known and I will dive into it when I live…again?" he asked curiously as she chuckled.

"I will guide you, time after time, but you may never speak of living again."

He cocked his head as she held her paws out and when she pulled the dark forms away he held two paws full of little purple flowers and shook his head as he looked back at her again. "Violets?"

"You are more than what you see yourself as, Robert of Loxley. You are more than what you will ever be in this life, as is your mate."

"Marion?"

The dark vixen tipped her head as she slid further under a shadowed canopy of trees. "I am now positive the path I am taking is the only one I can take, even if I cannot see its outcome. Every child born to this world is mine to keep, even if they are grown from the foolish notions that yield no true fruit."

"Fruit?" he asked as he chuckled through another cough.

"Robert of Loxley, look to the future, and do not live in the past or try to understand what is not meant to be understood. Know that there are three fates. There is a right choice, a wrong choice, and no choice."

"Three fates?"

The dark figure billowed as she hovered above the ground. "Three fates, Robert of Loxley. One can travel the wrong road, that will lead to darkness. One can sit and make no choice, and it will still lead to darkness, for doing nothing is making a bad choice when you should have done something. One can make the right choice and fight for it, the outcome may be unseen, but it is the only choice that leads to any hope."

"I am afraid I do not understand."

"I have seen three paths. Two were dark, one I could not see beyond. You have taught your children well and the fates will rest in all of you."

"Fates? Are you speaking of the witches that lived under the tree of life and stole the eye of Od.."

The fox shook his head chuckling but when he looked again only the natural shadows remained. He made his way back to the edge of the woods and out into the area where the carriage was sitting, the buck at a fire and another small fox sitting with him turned as a branch snapped under his foot.

The buck stood up wide eyed as he shook his head. "What in the name of all the Gods happened to you, Mr. Robert? And how did you get…that sword again!?" Skippy blinked as the young fox beside him stood up. The light hitting his clothes sent them both squinting as they turned to shield their eyes. The buck cringed as the red tod stepped next to him and shoved the sword back in its hilt. "The monster of the loch gave it to you?"

"No, my boy. The lady of the lake gave it to me." He sat at the fire and stuck his paws over it, warming his fingers as he coughed and the buck and younger fox looked at each other uncertainly as they both took seats.

"A monster she must be to have aged you so." Skippy said as he looked over the greying fur and bags that now rested under his eyes. "What is that?"

The red fox lifted a brow as the young buck pulled a scroll from under his cape. "She did nothing of the sort. That was my own choice and a price I was willing to pay to see something no one will believe if I spoke it. I didn't know she had given me something else." He looked it over and smiled as he rolled it back up. "Something for our family I am supposed to keep hidden. I will find a place I know it will stay with us."

The buck looked back to the younger fox as he leaned forward. "We should make haste, Mr. Robert. You are ill."

The red fox leaned forward dipping into the stew that was simmering and licked the spoon. "Oof, wish Little John had come. You can't cook."

"At least I did cook, that one can only burn everything." The younger fox snickered as the buck narrowed his eyes.

Robin looked over grinning as the young vixen next to him shrugged. "You should stop dressing like a boy Joan, and traveling around with us when we take to a quest, child."

The young vixen sneered at him as she scrunched her nose up. "I'm as close to a boy as you are ever going to get, Father! You should stop letting me come along and teaching me things only boys should know if you felt that way." she snatched one of his swords and pulled it from its sheath as he leaned back. Him and Skippy both threw their paws up as it flashed in front of them.

The older fox looked back at Skippy blinking. The young vixen stood holding it with her jaw hanging open as it lit up like the armor her father was wearing. "Perhaps it doesn't matter if you are a boy, the Armor of the Gods seems to find you acceptable as its next heir, and apparently mine."

"I CAN'T DO THAT! MOTHER WOULD KILL ME!" Skippy looked at the red fox and they both laughed as she glared at them. "That isn't funny father, we aren't supposed to be using swords or fencing, fighting and-"

"Joan," he said as Skippy shook his head, still snickering. "If you want to live to see your next year, never let your mother hear you say there is something you cannot do."

The young vixen took a seat examining the sword as her father smiled. "I will never marry, will I?"

Skippy looked back at the tod and shrugged. "If it is what you wish, you will. Why is that a thought now?"

Joan bit her lip and looked to her father. "Emily and Darla already have suitors interested."

The tod sat up and curled a brow. "Are they…interested back?"

"I wasn't supposed to tell you, Father."

The fox scratched his chin and smiled. "I believe I may have a way to keep the Hopps bunnies we have lost with us all the time. We can honor them on the day we wed, to show that we will always be bound together as a family."

Skippy tipped his ears. "What are you thinking, Mr. Robert?"

The red fox smirked as he sighed. He looked over the scroll before sticking it back under his robe. "Rabbits and foxes. Red and Gray, always connected even though we are apart." The older fox looked to the buck with a tipped brow. "Do you still dabble in the arts, Skippy?"

The buck nodded slowly as the fox rubbed his chin. "Something on the day we wed? And something you would like me to...draw? What is it you have in mind, Mr. Robert?"

"Just a couple of ideas that show we will always be connected. Something specific to your sister Sissy and the day we came together as a family... She is well by the way, as are all the others."

The buck beamed as the young vixen and older tod smiled. "Something on the day we wed- something that is a reminder of how we were separated, how we can come back together. To show no matter how far apart we are, we will always find each other again.”

“Will we, find each other again?” Skippy chewed his lip.

Joan took a seat still marveling at the sword in her paw and Robin chuckled. “We will, in time……”

**Notes;** **References for this are scattered through actual history and mythical stories.**

**Wherefore art thou; Romeo and Juliet, who were separated from each other due to feuding families. Yep- twisted it. You should be able to put together why soon enough with how that story ended, but if not, it is believed most foxes can't live once they have lost a mate without a significant reason to keep them going. The love of their children that still need them, or hate.**

**Robin Hood's daughter that could carry the swords in a functioning state's name was Joan. Also obvious in the context of religion. She was killed for her beliefs by the Catholic church and being a female who fought when it wasn’t allowed, later became a martyr and a saint when her mother went to the church asking to clear her good name. Joan of Arc. Joan means merciful, Arc means boy or curved line/half circle**

**It wasn’t the armor that killed Robin Hood, (King Arthur) but the water that got into his lungs. The future he saw also aged him and greyed his fur significantly, making him ill and shortening his life. Robin Hood being King Arthur explains that there really was a first fox king- it isn’t revealed in Think Like A Fox, even though Robin Hood was said to be the first fox king and the first dominant male of their species.**

**All for one and one for all is a reference to the three musketeers. Marion, little John and Robin Hood were the only three of the original gang to travel to this new country after King Richard was asked by another King for help because he feared his kingdom would fall when his subjects began to fight over power with no rightful heir being born.**

**Christopher was one of the youngest 'Hopps' bunnies Robin and Marion took in, he used the stars to navigate to another land. This should be clear enough to anyone who knows general history. (At least what is commonly taught.) Attila is a reference that should also be obvious, though this is not actually history the way I have weaved it all together. Similarities in how things unfolded are all that are meant to be caught.**

**Excalibur was the sword King Arthur had to get from the lady of the lake in the story of Camelot. It held a great deal of power only the rightful king could wield and was also the sword in the stone. Hmm funny the sword of the gods was returned from a place where Loki is carved in stone in a den that was believed to be a myth around a council that has ten seats – the name peter means stone - hehehe - man I’m kinda evil saying that kinda stuff ain’t I?**

**The monster of the loc is of course the loch ness monster, always seen as nothing more than a (giant) dark shape or shadow. Thought to look like a water dragon or a long extinct prehistoric animal.**

**Grace talking about fruit and seeds is a reference to her daughter Sigyn. (Loki's mate) who was found growing in a fruit in Idun's garden.**


	29. The Big Deal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Secrets are his business too.

**The Big Deal 1969**

James Young; I'll Be Good

Mr. Big watched as his bears left him to his own business. The tiny shrew flipped through several papers as his grandmother walked in and tilted her head. "Amata?" she huffed as he glanced at her, two bright blue eyes flipped her direction before his head dipped back into the papers he was looking over. The glossy sheen of his youth and troubled face had her heart heavy as she watched him turn his bright blue eyes back under a heavy brow. The little female slid in front of his desk and folded her paws in front of herself as he went about looking through his business again. He set the papers aside and leaned back in his chair when he felt her eyes stay on him. He pursed his lips as he gave her his attention in an aggravated voice.

"What is it Grandmama?"

The little female let her face fall as she looked over the desk and shook her head. "Amata. You can't keep burying yourself in this like you have been. You need to start a family, bring me some grandbabies I can love and-

The male shrew dropped his brow and shook his head as he glared at her. "I have no time for such nonsense. And I do not wish to take on something that would make me weak to those I deal with on a daily basis."

"Weak? You believe love and Familia are a weakness?" He deadpanned her as she narrowed her eyes. "Child. You have taken over the family business and our business is family! It cannot continue if there are none left to keep it going when you are gone."

"I have no intentions of going anywhere."

"Intentions or not, life will find you and you will be alone. This is not what I wish for our Familia." The tiny shrew sighed as she set her eyes on him in a tilt that left his suit feeling tighter and he shook his head.

"I will spend each morning with you. I will have Boris set up something in the upstairs parlor so we can share breakfast each morning so that you are kept informed on the business and do not feel so alone."

"It is not me I am worried about being alone! It is not the business I am worried about Amata! I am alone in this world without your father and proud you have taken his place. I do not want you to end up the same way."

"I am young Grandmama. I have plenty of time to go about that later if it comes into view."

"It will never come into view when you never leave the business like this! Life is not just about work or making a name for yourself. It counts for nothing if you have no one to share it with and there is no legacy to pass it on to."

He sat up and sighed as he rubbed his chin. "What is it you want Grandmama? I am very busy and this is biting into my time."

The little female snatched his ear causing him to groan as she pulled him closer. "I want you to live! If you cut yourself off from everything but this, you will never understand what life is really about! It is not just about work and power! You have those and I am very proud of how you have risen to it after the way we lost your father. But without him, I would not have you or any of this."

"This is about papa? You believe I am not as good as he was as so many others have claimed?" She let go of his ear and shook her head as he leaned back titling a brow at her.

"Amata, please. This isn't about your father and the differences between you. Do not get swept away and lose track of time. You were young when you took over and have missed so many things by burying yourself in the business trying to fill his shoes. I do not want you to miss the best things in life trying to live up to a name that most believe does fit us. You can only be as Big as your heart and an iron fist does not bode well for business. If you close love out you will never be as big as he was in this world."

The shrew in the chair rubbed his chin with a finger and nodded as he looked back at his grandmother. "You have someone in mind?"

"She is lovely Amata. I believe she would make a fine wife and mother. She comes from the Cassada family."

Mr. Big sat up smiling and she smirked as his ears set on her. "You wish to merge with our rivals through marriage?"

The little female shrugged cockily as he smiled and chuckled. "I knew it was likely the only way I could get you to meet anyone."

Mr. Big nodded as he looked off in thought. "If that worked it would expand us into the last part of Zootopia and there would only be one other left that could challenge me."

"This isn't about power Amata, and do not try to go against that family. They were here long before us and the Cassada's. Their reach is far beyond what we can hope for."

"Perhaps not Grandmama. His son came to me asking for help. Apparently, his daughter is ill and they have not been able to find her since yesterday."

The matron of the Big family stuck her finger in his face and he crossed his eyes as he looked at her pointed nail. "Do not use a family tragedy to exact a play of power! His son will be taking over for him and if the rumors are correct that child will not live another year regardless of where she is. That is not how the Big's do business!"

He dipped his head and nodded as she stood straight again. "Still Grandmama, if we could find her, it would at least be a bit of good blood between us."

"Do not involve blood when it comes to Familia and business. No matter what another has done or may do, you do not get involved in family affairs. It could start a war within the grid that would destroy us all when they are the ones running it. Even we cannot step on the toes of the ones who control the streets and can make others disappear without a trace. Our family may remove problems we have by getting rid of them, but even we cannot make someone invisible as if they had never existed."

"As you wish Grandmama. I will leave it to them then."

"And you will meet her?"

Mr. Big settled in his chair folding his paws over his chest as she raised both brows. "I will meet her."

The little female shrieked as she hopped up and down and he chuckled as she curled around him in a tight hug. "You will see, Amata! She is a lovely girl!" He watched her disappear through the small elevator and shook his head as he searched through the papers again, trying to find where he’d left off. His ear flicked as he heard a creak and he looked around. The shrew shrugged it off as he went back to his papers and his ears shot up as a low growl rolled through the room. He stood, stepping in front of the small desk he was seated at and looked around from the larger one it was sitting on.

"I fear nothing in my own home. You are either very foolish in your bravery or do not expect to leave alive. Show yourself."

His eyes scanned the room not seeing anything until a flick of darkness caught his attention from the furthest corner in the room. The small shrew's eyes grew wide as a billowing shadow swooped from the corner like a waft of smoke and he shook his head as it rose in front of the desk, a pair of pitch-black eyes void of reflection blinking at him from the wistful billows of black fur like material swirling around them. "What are you?"

"I am the thing that you catch in the corner of your eye but can never see. The thing all mammals fear."

The shrew frowned. "Why would anyone fear you?"

"You do not fear me?" a female voice asked in a low hiss as he slowly shook his head.

"There is nothing to fear from darkness. It is a friend I have used on many an occasion."

"Not even the darkness of your own mind? The secrets you hide and the regret that causes the darkness to grow within you? The darkness I can see into as you hide it from the world?"

The flowing figure in front of him settled as it took form and he tilted his head to one side as a fox took shape. "Who are you?"

"I am darkness. I am the thing that lives and dies in each breath you take. I have always been and will always be, even after the last star has died, I will remain. I see all, I know all. I am within all life and will carry you from the darkness back into the light."

"You are a God?"

The dark figure in front of him hissed and he threw his paws up shielding his face as it came closer. His fur stood on end and he could feel the coldness seeping into his bones as the voice whispered again. "I am no mammal's God. Even the Gods will bow to me for I am the thing that nothing can escape."

Mr. Big dropped his paws as the chill left him and tipped his head to one side as the figure in front of him seemed to flicker when the sun peeked through the window through the clouds. It backed further away and he watched as two black holes narrowed, until the light had dimmed in the room again. He stepped forward as it turned its hollow gaze on him again. "I know what you are, Lady."

"All know what I am. All try to catch me, all wish to make more of me or change me to something they wish me to be, all leave me behind and all move with me."

Mr. Big nodded as he tilted his head to one side. "You are long winded is what you are." The shadow growled as he threw his paws up chuckling. "Fate has many names Lady, and yet she comes to me?"

"You want for power, you strive for greatness, to be the name they all fear and want to be known for rising above the shadow you lived in, so much so that you took a life to get where you are." His blue eyed widened as the figure billowed in front of him. "I know all Alanzo Big. There are no secrets to me, not even in the loneliness of your own mind and the regret that eats at your soul. Do you wish you change it?"

He nodded as he lowered his brow. "I do, to overcome the weakness of my father, and unite all under a single name."

"I can give you what you wish for. I can make you the most _ruthless_ of all crime lords and erase the stain on your soul."

"What would this cost me to you? I know what you give and what you take. I am not willing to do either."

She hissed as she moved closer and Mr. Big held his head high as she held out one billowing paw. The shrew tipped a brow as he held out his paw and caught a tiny piece of rounded gold. "I wish to live but once. For if I don't, I will fall back into the darkness I am and be alone again, with nothing but thoughts and memories of all who lived within me."

He narrowed his eyes as he looked back at her shaking his head. "Why?"

"I must save what brought me into existence."

"If you have always been, how can you save what brought you into existence?"

"I am darkness, I had no form, no face, no hands, no thought, no memory before a light exploded, sending life scattered over me. I must save the first light ever born."

"A star?"

"Not a star, Alonzo Big. Much more than a star. So small it would be overlooked if not known to be. The first realization of self and existence. Darkness had nothing until the light gave it shadows and life to move through."

"And what would you give as payment to save this…spark, you speak of?"

The figure lowered in front of him and he looked into the void of her eyes as his eyes grew wide. "NO! NO!" He fell back in horror, unable to look away from his own darkest secret.

"I know all, I see all. I am as big or as small as I am chosen to be. I will keep you for Eternity in the darkness of what you have become and destroy the empire you have built on the blood of your father. The blood you spilled to take his place and become greater than he was through lies and betrayal. I can reveal it to the world or give you the chance to change it, and you can still become what you wish to be by holding this for me and helping one who is in need."

"Take it away! Take it away and I will give you anything!"

Her eyes closed as he gasped several times and swallowed as he shook his head.

"I will change it for you, remove this regret and weight you wear as a burden you caused yourself to bear each day."

"You can...do that?"

"I can change it if you choose to, remove the memory and facts from you and alter history, only if you will listen when I go back. No living being can travel as I travel through others or myself. It is your own heart that must decide, for I cannot sway the power of free will. I am but a whisper on the wind and will echo in your ears. It is you who must listen and choose the path you take. Do you believe you can make another choice? It will not change the timeline of events, but the reality of them as they happened."

"YES! YES!" Mr. Big stood as he nodded.

"Then wait but for a moment, one you will not even see pass." She vanished int the shadows as Mr. Big, blinked.

**Five years earlier.**

The young shrew frowned heavily as he stepped around a corner, watching his father at a desk he’d grown to hate, a mammal he’d grown to hate. At each turn in his life they’d told him he’d never measure up to the mammal his father had been. Bitterness and hate flowed through him as he looked around the small area that was set inside a wall to keep it hidden from those who might be able to get to the crime lord who was known to be the tyrant feared by the others and expected to overthrow them all. Alanzo gripped the blade handle in his paw as he crept into the room and raised the knife above his head and his father's back. His ear flicked as his father slammed a paw to the papers that seemed to flutter on the desk in front of him and the shrew behind him stopped as a single word echoed in his ears. _Remember…._

His eyes burned as the thoughts of playing with his father when was younger rushed through his head. _Familia…._ A bright sunny day flashed in his mind as a much smaller version of himself giggled and looked down at the father tossing him into the air laughing. _Love…._ Another memory sprang into view as he clenched the blade hilt tighter and blinked. The tiny shrew in his memories laughed as his father let go of the back of the bike, his feet pedaling faster as his father laughed behind him. "GO! Alonzo! You are doing it on your own!" he sucked in a deep breath as he saw the bike fall over and felt his father paws wrap around him as he screamed and clutched his knee. "WOAH WOAH! What's this? Tsk tsk," his father chided as he rubbed a tear away and shook his head. "Don't hide your tears. You are bigger than a little scrape, aren't you?" he asked as he looked over the cut-up knee covered in gravel. The small shrew kit on his lap turned and blinked away another tear as he sniffled. His father smiled at him as he shook his head, "I will always be here, even when you cannot see me. Tears are nothing more than a bad memory and are lost as they fall away from us. That is how we get bigger than we are. By shedding the things that make us weak and holding onto the ones that make us stronger." His father wrapped his arms around him chuckling. "You are what makes me stronger."

Alonzo loosened the grip on the blade hilt as several tears fell. A thick wind blew through the room as his father scrambled to get the paper and stood, turning as he tried to catch a few flying around the room. He looked up in shock seeing his son holding a blade above him with tears running down his face. His eyes widened as Alonzo turned the blade on himself. "I am sorry Papa. I am not Big enough to destroy what makes me weak." His father screamed and jumped forward as he tried to plunge the knife into his own chest. He threw the younger shrew to the floor after wrestling the knife away and tossed it aside as he dropped to the floor with his son. Alonzo looked up at him sobbing as his father shook his head.

"Foolish child. Don't you know it is not a weakness to hold your Familia higher than the power you have?"

Alonzo looked back at him sobbing as his father smiled and shook his head. The older shrew stood and held a paw out to his son before he clutched his chest and ground his teeth together. He fell to his knees grinding out a scream through grit teeth as the younger shrew grabbed him screaming. "PAPA! PAPA!" The older shrew clutched his son's face as he huffed through each staggered breath.

"This is our true strength, Alonzo. The strength of your love, the strength of forgiveness, the strength of compassion, the strength of your heart. That is what will make you truly Big. Be a better Big than your Papa…you’re already bigger than you kno…" his voice lowered to a whisper and trialed off as Alonzo clutched him in his arms screaming.

"PAPA! PAPA! PLEASE! DON'T LEAVE ME!"

**Present**

Mr. Big screamed out as he fell to his knees sobbing. The dark figure appeared and lowered in front of him as he looked back at her trying to catch his breath. "This is not what I wanted!"

She nodded as she stood again, watching him cupping a paw over his face. "I told you I could not change the timeline. His death would have happened at the same moment. Whether you had plunged the blade into his back or his heart had stopped of its own accord was your choice. You chose a different path this time. Will you let his last words be nothing to you, for they were real and true."

"What is it you desire, Monster! I still have the memory of taking his life in my mind, so what use was all this?!"

"I will take it from you, if you hold what I have given you and help someone who is vital to the plan I am trying to enact."

"Help who and how will this possibly help me?!"

"You will gain all you wish for, I can take this memory from you and let you believe it was a choice you never took. Leave you with the knowledge of knowing how you would have felt if you had taken his life. It is a truth no one can escape, the choices we make and where they lead us to. But be warned, Mr. Big. You will be known as Ruthless regardless of which path you take. You will surpass your father either way, but the choice of what kind of Ruthless you choose to be will be yours if you accept this."

"Then take this knowledge from me! Wipe it from my mind so I know I did not take the life of the one I thought I could never live up to, the one I wish I still had and I will help the one you ask of me!"

She dipped lower as he wiped his face off and tipped her head. "His name is Nicholas Wilde. No matter what he says or does. Keep the name in your graces. He will lead you to a path that will make you all you wish to be."

"How can one do such a thing? Is he another like you?"

She lifted a paw and shook her head. "No, there are no others like me. He is just a fox, one and the same with like names. A fox who will start the changes that will guide others back to where they belong."

"One and the same? He is something to you?"

"Do not ask that of which you are not meant to understand. Stand Alonzo Big, so that I may change what is in your mind and erase what never was. Hold onto my talisman, it will hold the heart of all I am, guard it with the new life I give you now, even when it no longer works. It is more precious than you will ever know."

The small shrew looked at the locket she had given him, opening it and furrowed his brow as he shook his head. "A watch?"

"It is what it will be. I trust you will keep it safe. If it is not, all I have done and all you will gain will be lost."

"Yes, I will keep it safe. How may I call on you if something happens?"

"You may call me as many others have. I am Grace, but when it stops, I shall be lost to you and all others as I live." He stuck it in his pocket before she stuck a claw to his forehead, leaving him only with the knowledge that she was the reason he’d not gone through with what had once actually happened. The shrew took several deep breaths as he watched her disappear into the shadows and turned as a small female rushed onto the desk from an elevator located in one of its legs.

"Alonzo!" What is it? I heard you screaming!"

Mr. Big looked back at the corner and shook his head as he took a seat again. "Nothing Grandmama, just a ghost that startled me."

"A ghost?" she raised her brow suspiciously as he plucked a locket from his pocket and opened it, looking at the clock face shaking his head.

"At some point, one I fear may haunt me, but at the moment I owe a debt to pay for a great tragedy averted." She scowled at the nonsense he was mumbling as he stuck the watch back in his pocket. "Who is this daughter I am to meet Grandmama? The Cassada's have many."

The tiny female shrew picked up her cheeks grinning as she bit her lip. "She is lovely Amata! Her name is Ruth Cas….

 **Notes** ; **Mr. Big originally killed his father to take the power he held and take over the family business due to resentment of others saying he would never be as good - or as bad as his father. This fact was changed by the dark figure that lives within, and is darkness. (Some people are afraid of the dark) Amanda told Cory in Think Like A Fox that Mr. Big was ruthless after Nick told them Mr. Big wanted to buy the popsicle idea. People in Zootopia say he's the most Ruthless of all the crime Lords. No one ever mentions his wife's name. Her name was Ruth, he's extremely... Ruthless.**


	30. Towing The Line

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy endings can start as horror stories-

**Towing The Line**

Alissa Cara; Wild Things

_She - It_ is everywhere and is the only thing that is always and can be in two or more places at once…..

**John Doe**

A red furred tod stood pacing the floor as he waited. The rabbit next to him watched him as he kept nervously wringing his paws while he kept glancing at the clock. She giggled as he looked at her with a tipped brow. "First litter?"

He nodded as he sighed. "Time just seems to be crawling. I feel like I’ve been sitting here for days when it's only been a few hours."

"Here, to pass the time." The doe said as she handed him a small red book.

He looked at the little book and took it gratefully. She watched as he flipped it over. "Hounds of Hell and Angels of death?" he asked as she shrugged.

"It’s a very old story. Common knowledge among bunnies because we have a tendency to study religion. Keep it, maybe it’ll help you pass the time as you wait."

"I think I may have heard of it when I was younger. It’s a book? A religious thing? I thought it was just a story to scare kits into going to bed. Wait, can I pay you for it? We…I mean foxes don't really take things and not give something in return."

The doe giggled as she looked back to the door and shrugged. "Yes, it is. Share it with others and learn something new. That will be enough of a payment, won't it?"

The tod smiled and nodded. "Thank you." He said as she got up and left him to the book. The pages opened and time passed quickly as he read the story. The last page turned and a faded parchment fell out as he looked down curiously. The fox picked it up and read through each line…

_Darkness and light shall bear the color of life. The God of Mischief shall rise…. A higher breed of fox…. the father of the father who incites chaos shall find his place in Eternity…._

He folded it over and stuck it back in the book before he placed it in his pocket. He rubbed his neck and sat back up, looking at the clock again as a rabbit came out of the side door. She bowed her head as he jumped from his seat. "Can I see them?"

"Mr. Eden. Perhaps you should sit down." When she shied her eyes from him and swallowed, he shook his head.

"Where are my mate and my kits?"

"There were complications. I'm sorry Mr. Eden, she didn't make it and only one kit survived."

"I need to see them." He said with heavy brows as she shook her head.

"Mr. Eden, I think it would be best if you only saw the …"

"Show me! You can't keep me from seeing them! It is a Primal Law for foxes!"

She dropped her head as she took a breath and led him into the back room where a body laid covered with a sheet. The Doe turned away as he pulled it back and cringed as he gagged and wretched through gasping breaths. "Uhhu. Gods! They’re torn to shreds!" he cried as she cinched her shoulders. "How did this happen? It's unnatural and someone screwed up! What the hell happened?!"

The doe looked at the other door and watched as the doctor who’d delivered them stepped into the room. "You have one child that survived, Mr. Eden. Perhaps you should focus on him and not the loss."

The red fox swallowed as he stood, still stunned by everything as he followed him blindly. He stopped at a large window as the doctor motioned for the nurse in the nursery and another doe stepped out and lifted a bundle a bit larger than a fox kit should have been. The red fox blinked as they unwrapped the infant, showing him the black fur and elongated claws as the little tod lazily slept. He blinked as his eyes swelled over. "That's not my son… that's not my son! Get that demon away from me!" He backed away as his lips trembled and shook his head. The fox rushed through a door and was running down several sets of stairs before he burst into the night air and sobbed as he looked up at the sky. A bright orange moon hung as he pulled the book out and flipped through pages, before he looked back into the night sky. "A bad omen… Born under a full blood moon, the hound from hell will bring life's demon, unless the father of his blood strikes him in the mould of love. For if he knows of a dark heart, he shall tear the world apart. For if he follows a darkened path, no life will stand as he breathes his last. An angel of death will be his bride, and they shall bring forth the sire of Gods…. a fox who will father a higher breed, rebirthing the world with his seed…."

His ears flicked as he shook his head. _Your son…. listen…. heart…._ A voice barely whispered as his teeth ground together. He sucked back the tears and filled his heart with rage. _Please…. heart…. blood…. family…. love…._ the voice echoed again as he stiffened his back and curled his lip under, glaring back at the hospital.

"He killed my family. Tore his litter mates to shreds as he clawed his way from his mother's womb and took her, took them from me, everything I loved… he took my heart. I’ve brought a demon into this world. No matter what I have to do, I will make sure he doesn’t destroy it..."

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The dark shadow that had been whispering on the wind hung her head as her attempts to sway him were ignored. She left shaking her head as she dove back into the shadows, knowing her pleas fell on deaf ears and a path had been set that she couldn’t change as he twisted her words to what he wanted them to fit. All she couldn’t see was all there was as she set about trying to lead those who needed to be one together again. She came out of the shadows in a darkened nursery where a tiny black furred kit slept snugly in a swaddled blanket. "Every child born to this world is mine to keep. I can give you only this as you make your way in the world. I will hide you in the darkness, protect you from as much as I can. You must be only what you are and will become. A fox. You will find your way through lies and betrayal, and you’ll find your opposite. Each of you will represent the only things that can save this world. Gods are made of nothing more than what is belief. I will stay with you and keep you hidden for as long as I can. Believe little one, and you shall become…. Nicholas." The figure fled into a corner under a counter ledge as the door opened and a light flicked on. Several rabbits poured into the room as she narrowed her hollow eyes.

"Lilith," an older doe hissed as the younger picked up the little bundle and turned, showing him off as she smiled. The doe raised her head as she pulled the bundle apart, showing off the black furred fox in her arms. "What makes you think this one is any different than the others? We’ve been spreading these stories and rumors for centuries to find the ones who will bring this to pass and still have failed in all our attempts. The foxes never believe these stories and he still has a family out there."

Lilith smirked as she looked at the little fox she bounced in her arm. "Well mother, this one is different. When the doctor called me in a panic because he screwed up trying to deliver them, I got here and found this little guy was the only one still living. I took the time to talk to the father, since we’re out here in an obscure district away from anything civilized, he’d never heard the stories. He left in a huff not long ago. Heartbroken guy." She snickered as she bounced her eyes between the rabbits in the room.

The eldest of them stepped forward and narrowed her eyes. "That changes nothing, Lilith! He could change his mind, come back for him. If he does and you’ve convinced him the child is a demon, he may kill it which would lead to an investigation we can't afford! Then what good would any of this do? Like I said before, how is he any different than the others?"

The younger doe bounced her arm again as the little black fox curled into a ball. "Do you think I have not thought this through, Mother? It just so happens that I got a report from another rabbit in the City of Roses. It seems there’s a vixen there who had an odd anomaly with one of her tests. One in the litter she’s having is a vixen, an albino vixen."

All the does in the room gaped as Lilith smiled. "Born at the same time?!" the older doe asked as she ticked her eyes between her daughter and the kit she was holding.

"Well, within a few months yes."

"Lilith, even if there has never been an albino vixen and an extra silver tod living at the same time, that’s the point- they never live long enough to start school and how would we get to her? The foxes don't believe these stories."

Lilith smirked as she rocked back and forth looking him over again. "We can't get to her, it seems her mother’s in a very high position and not even the little hints that were dropped through the hospital swayed her thinking about keeping the little girl when she knew she’d be born deaf and likely not live long."

"What position?" the older doe asked as she narrowed her eyes.

"I believe she’s on the council there, but it really doesn't matter does it? We don't need to get to her, if we can get him…to her."

"How do you plan on doing that?" the older doe asked as she tipped her head to one side.

"Well, if the father comes back. I’ll simply tell him I’m a concerned guardian here and am looking out for this kit. He doesn't know I work here, will never know what really happened, and if he decides to take the child, I’ll convince him it would be better to leave him at an orphanage, a place where he can look in on him if he needs to."

"They don't usually live long after they lose a mate Lilith and how would we be…. You intend on having him leave the child at one of our orphanages?" Her mother growled as the doe smirked again.

"If they have something to love they can live, like a child that’s left behind that needs them, or something they hate more than all they loved and lost. It won't be that difficult to create this little John Doe will it? Not if he’s in our care and we have sway over his father to guide him where he needs to be, when I’ve already planted the seed in his father's mind?"

The does in the room all looked to the eldest there as her brows rose. "My goodness, Lilith. You have been a busy bunny tonight, and exactly how do you plan on keeping this all-in place, and that fox on track in order to stay in line with the scrolls?"

"Oh, he has the scrolls already mother. I slipped a copy of them into the book I gave him with a few …minor changes to the wording. As for keeping him in line, do you think he’d oppose the fox council if he believed they were the ones trying to catch the fox God and make sure his children were the ones who were next in line to rule the world? A higher breed of fox. He's not going to understand it anyway. Every fox we’ve read it to, sees it as something else and we know what we’re after. All I need are the resources from the rabbit council to make sure he’s well-funded, and driven into hate. Everything happens for a reason, so I believe this vixen will live and they’re meant to meet."

The older doe blinked as she looked back at her daughter, while the other does sported nasty grins. "Aren't you a chip off the old block?" one of the elders snickered as her mother raised her head.

"Indeed, she is. I’ll give you all the resources you need, Lilith. So long as I believe you have this under control and aren’t trying to shove me off my seat."

Lilith giggled as she rewrapped the little fox and laid him back in the nursery bed. "Oh, I intend to get your seat mother, it’s my birth right but I want Nine to rule them all more than anything else…."

They all turned as a nurse rushed into the room. "The father is back! He says he’s taking him home with him!"

Lilith smiled as she straightened her shirt. "You should all make yourselves scarce. This needs a delicate touch." They all chuckled as she opened the door and turned as she motioned to the nurse. "By the way, take those claw extensions off of him, will you? We don't want the little guy hurting himself now do we?"

Her mother shook her head grinning as the nurse left to grab something to get them off with. "You’re calling him John Doe? A little John Doe...You are a wicked little thing, aren't you?" she asked as all the does around them giggled.

"It seems appropriate and I do try, Mother." Lilith ushered the other rabbits from the room and turned the light off, her ears ticking back as she heard a low growl from in the room. The doe stuck her head back in, looking around before she shook it off as she closed the door behind her.

Grace slipped from the shadows, curling over the little tod again as she pulled a piece of her darkness from her own form and laid it on the little fox's fur, watching it place a sheen on him that darkened his fur even more as she growled at the door. "I will hide you in your darkest moments, I will be with you in every step you take until the day comes when we must part ways. I will be your shadow, and that rabbit should hope she never finds herself in mine, for I’ve never known mercy…"

**A few months later;**

**Tranquility**

Grace flew through the night, curling around all the living plants that grew in the forests, in her wake she left a trail of death, nothing but darkened ashes remained as the life she collected swirled around her until she could no longer gather anymore. She set her ears as she heard a soft sobbing and dove into the shadows.

Cassie ground her teeth together watching them feverishly working on the little vixen she’d been told would likely not live long. She buried her face in her mate's chest as the tod curled around her, all their sons already taken care of and greeted before the white furred vixen had been born. She felt her mate's tears dripping onto her shoulder as she lost the ability to keep her breaths still and shuttered as he wrapped her more tightly in his arms. The vixen's head shot up as the lights went out and the doctors were all scrambling to get emergency lights up as they continued to work on the little vixen who was losing her heartbeat. The shadows danced on the walls and sent confusion into the room as Cassie and Ross fought to see through the maze of mammals who were still scrambling around their newborn daughter.

Grace fled under the little vixen and curled around her as the doctor grabbed a small set of paddles. "I will give you the one thing I have never given anyone. I have stolen life for you, so that one day you can bring it forth. I will give you, time." She unwound all the life force she’d collected from the forest as she poured it into the little vixen's mouth.

"CLEAR!"

Grace was thrown away as the spark from the charge to her little heart set the life she’d collected into motion within the tiny albino fox. Cassie jumped, sobbing as Ross curled around her trying to keep her from seeing what was happening. The vixen shoved him away as the doctor and nurses who’d been around her all stepped back in shock as the tiny vixen screamed. All of them blinked in shock as the tiny fox's arms and legs kicked out and thrashed in all directions before they were scrambling around her again.

Several hours later Cassie and Ross sat looking over their sons and tipped their ears as the doctor came back in with a bundle. The vixen burst into tears as they laid her daughter in her arms. Her mate pressed his head to hers and closed his eyes sobbing as the little vixen cooed in her arms.

"She's about as healthy as they get."

Cassie laughed through her own tears as she looked over her daughter, examining all her little fingers and toes as her mate looked over her shoulder.

The little vixen opened her eyes and both foxes looked to each other blinking as she looked around. The doctor chuckled as he stood watching. "Damndest thing anyone here has ever seen. All kits are born with blue eyes, hers are such a bright green if I didn't know any better, I'd think they weren't real."

"She got your eyes, Cassie." Ross sighed and bit back his tears again as the vixen sniffled.

"No Ross, she got the Wild eyes. Just like her ancestor…Marion."

"She's awfully peaceful for everything that happened, isn't she?" he asked as he looked her over and ran a finger over her ears, chuckling as they flicked several times. "Tranquility Marion Wild. Like the _white roses_ that I grow with eyes as green as the stems and leaves on them…"

**Notes; John Doe - A fox with that name would be a dead giveaway regarding his life to all foxes in fox culture. He’s not one of the souls Grace moved around. She has to wait until everything lines up to set everyone in place.** **Mr. Eden is Nicholas' father. His first true name was Adam. Lilith is the bunny running the top of the rabbit council. (Adam believes she’s running the fox council) Evelyn is the mother of the kits he took in and the one who helped him nearly kill Nicholas as he tried to tear him and Rose apart to get their paws on young Nicky in Think Like A fox. Lilith calling him Little John Doe is a reference to Robin Hood. Grace telling him she will be his shadow is a reference to Peter Pan.**

**Tranquility’s (Rose’s) eyes being so green is a direct result of Grace pulling life from the Earth to give her life and Time.**


	31. The Children Of Grace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shrug-I got a thing for poetry. It fits and its weaved into a lot of this-

**The Children of Grace**

Epic Pop (Feat. Chelsey Caroline); Amazing Grace

Loki: We’re all gonna die; A Song (Haha- I hate that little section but I love this song and I couldn’t help it)

**Nearly Missed Chance**

The shadows moved around, creaking through the darkness as the shapeless form slipped through the gray of each shade. She held a small speck in her paws as she watched the doe screaming. "One more push! You can do it Sissy!"

A scream sounded as the doe fell back to the bed and her mate stepped closer as the doctor looked up and shook his head. He watched as the larger hare unwound a cord from the little buck's neck and was rubbing the lifeless little rabbit in an attempt to get him breathing. The lights flickered before the room fell into darkness.

"This is the last life I can lead you to. It’s up to you little one. Make it count as you have all the others that have led here." The shadow swooped in dropping the little speck as the doctor tried to clear his throat out again.

"What is happening?!" the doe screamed as her mate held her paw. They could both hear the hare handling their last born, cursing about power outages and the storm as the lights flew back on. The rabbit beside his mate looked down wide eyed as the hare handling the tiny newborn jumped and nearly dropped the infant as a tiny scream had Sissy sitting up smiling. "Let me see! I want to see!"

"Nine Mom! You've got nine healthy little…ugh…" The doe giggled as he stood, holding their last born and looked at her mate as she bit her lip. "I'm not really sure what to call them because it's a bit…offensive what most people do call them, but they sure are cute."

"How about we just call them ours?" their father asked as the doctor chuckled and nodded while he cleaned up a squealing little hybrid.

"The only two species known on the planet to be able to interbreed and I got to deliver some. That's pretty neat." He chuckled as he bundled the little rabbit/hare hybrid with the others and handed them to their mother as their father looked down at them glowing. "Sad they’ll probably get picked on…."

The buck shook his head. "We'll teach them they’re better than what the world says they are. Look at that, Sissy. I heard that someone in my family had once been with one of those rabbits from Indonesia but I never believed it. Who would have thought a rabbit and a hare could make something like that?"

The doe who was a bit larger than her rabbit mate looked down at the little bundle in her arms as she pulled the blanket away, looking at all their little heads, and giggled as she pet a set of tiny ears with black stripes. "I don't care what they look like to the rest of the world, they look like perfect to me."

He chuckled as he pressed his head to hers. "Sounds perfect too. We got the names picked out?"

She nodded as she bounced her arm a little. "Britany, Alex, Timothy, April, Brandy, Misty, Jacob, Jared, and this little guy that almost gave me a heart attack…is Jack."

"Well I think that'll about do it then." He chirped as he sat next to her.

The doctor nodded as he stepped closer to the door. "The nurse will be in here to help you get cleaned up and settled in a few minutes. That's one hell of a family line you're making there Mr. Savage. Odd name for a rabbit too."

The rabbit bounced his brow back to the hare doe and shrugged. "Her family name. Most of my family was lost in the Burrows plague."

The hare doctor curled his lip and shook his head. "Hmm, nasty business there. Hard to believe something like that can happen in this day and age. I heard just a few others had lived through it. How are you even here? You the last of the Hopps line?"

"Naw, there were five or six left, I think. Don't really know the details because I wasn't there you know. I left right before the outbreak and most of the rabbits around there were related somehow or another. I think I’m the last out for them but we are eighteen or nineteen generations apart removed by marriage and such. Not blood related. My name wasn't Hopps anyway. So, I just don't tell people about it often."

"Took her name, did you?" the doctor asked the buck as he watched the doe petting the little hybrids.

"That's how it's been since…before anyone could remember for rabbits. No idea how that started though. She's actually supposed to be named after a Famous Hopps bunny. Funny coincidence there I suppose." The hare doe shrugged as she dipped her head into their new litter.

"Well I'll leave you to your new family as I have another one to deliver on the way." The rabbit chuckled as the doctor left them, sitting beside his mate and pressing his head to hares as she bounced their kits again…

**Heaven Lee 1987**

"Live _my_ little one, I leave you now only because I must." The shadow whispered as she blew a breath that sent the speck in her paw floating to the Arctic vixen as she ground her teeth together.

"Here she is! The last one!" A shrill scream rounded as the arctic vixen blew out a last breath.

The tod beside her grinned ear to ear as they laid three little bundles in his arms. He looked back to the vixen who sighed as she shook her head. "No more. This was it for me, Roger."

The fox laughed as he unfolded the little kits and handed one to her mother. "Dawn, the first you brought to me, Aurora, as beautiful as the rainbow that dances in the sky." The tod stood back as his mate looked them over smiling.

"Little princesses." She looked back to Roger as the little vixen he was still holding rubbed her eyes.

"If this is all we’re having, Sandra. The last one will be all I've ever wished for. I’m holding the last piece of heaven. Heaven Lee."

The vixen scoffed as he looked back at the other two in her arms. "The last of heaven for you was hell for me. She’s definitely the last."

The tod chuckled as he watched her tiny paw grip around one of his fingers. "Heaven Lee Walker. I bet you’ll walk on the clouds just like your old Dad does."

"You aren't walking anywhere, Roger. And our girls will not be doing anything a proper young lady shouldn’t be doing. They’ll be better than we are and have better."

"I know they will, why do you think I'm having that plane built instead of having to rent the one I use now?"

"That plane will take several more years, at least, before we have enough money to get it finished, Roger. I don't want them thinking they’re going to be doing the kind of work you do or what I’ve had to do in the past."

The arctic tod laughed as he sat looking at the vixens she was holding and turned his attention back to the little white ball of fluff in his arm. "They’ll be better Sandra…. I can already see it…."

**Sound Barrier 1991**

Grace crept along the ground as the night and through an open window, lurking in the shadows as two small sand foxes rushed around their home, cleaning and getting their new infants ready for bed. The small vixen tipped her ears back as her mate shook his head. "Loud, aren't they?" he asked as she reached into a crib giggling as she picked up a tiny kit.

"I think he just needs to be changed, Lee." The tod smirked as she gently laid the youngest of their litter on a changing table. The vixen curled her lip as she searched through the things at the side and sighed as she left the dirty diaper in a pail next to the table. "I have to get some powder because he has a rash. Keep an eye on him until I come back from the bathroom?"

He chuckled as he nodded and she laughed as he held several others in his arms. "I think he'll be fine. I have my paws full." She laughed again as she left the room and the warm night air blew through the window as the shadow slipped between the wall and the changing table. Grace lifted as a pair of tiny brown eyes caught her in his sights. The little fox cooed as she tipped her head. "You can see me without me revealing a shape. Oh, I know who you are, who you have been, now you’ll become bigger than you ever dreamed." Her voice stayed as nothing above a whisper as the little kit chewed on his paw watching the shadow dancing on the wall. "I cannot save them all, little one, but you are so much stronger than what everyone will see you as. You shall have the strength to carry the weight of the world. Forgive me little one, the only way to save you and put you where you truly belong is to take something from you as I give you the only gift I can that will save your life. This is almost as far as I can see, as I make you into what you will eventually become." She swooped over the little kit as she held an hourglass in her paw, dropping two grains of sand in his ears before she flew back into the darkness of the night, going back to find the next one she needed to move.

The little fox wailed as the ringing in his ears drowned out all the sound and everything in the world went silent as his mother picked him up bouncing lightly. "It's Ok Bradly. Mommy has you now."

**Roughly two hundred years ago;**

A bolt of lightning crashed as the badger stumbled along. Her feet ached as she clutched her stomach and panted through the contraction she was bearing down on. She clutched the rail of a fence and shivered as the rain drenched her fur, looking at the headstones that held an ominous warning she couldn’t shake as she caught her breath and rushed forward again. The doctors wouldn’t come to where she worked. A theatre was no place for any nursemaid or gentleman to be seen, no matter what the reason may be. She made a few more hasty steps and stopped, clenching her teeth as she ground her voice through the next wave of pain that hit her. A pressure was bearing down as she stumbled to a stone that she fell into as her knees gave out. She wasn’t going to make it as the urge to push became overbearing. The female was strong for her species, but whined as her knees pulled forward. She had a thought of terror running through her head as the open grave not far from her seemed to cause a whistle that made her spine ache. She bore down hard as she clamped her teeth and screamed as the lightning flashed again. A loud thunder shook the area and she cried out as the sky seemed to fall around her. The eerie feeling of death settled as she ground down and pulled her knees into her chest. Another scream and she sucked in a breath as the pressure subsided and a new life slipped from her, leaving a sense of relief as she reached and pulled the tiny badger to her chest.

“No.” She whined as the little male laid still in her arms. She jostled him and nearly screamed as his little fists clenched, sucking in the first breath of air before he wailed. She pulled him close, petting his head and wrapping around him under the cold rain that had started to fall, thanking the Gods he was still among the living. “A tough little animal, just like the rest of your kind.” She cooed as she sighed and looked around. It was chilly and she pulled him under her shirt as she looked around, searching for somewhere to get out of the rain. She was going to have to wait to move a great distance. Badgers were known for being tough under any circumstance, but with a newborn and being a working lady, it wasn’t wise to be wandering around at night with a new infant. She was grateful for him either way with the health problems she had and would cherish every moment she had with him as she let the rest of it go and stood on shaking legs as she looked around. She spotted a mausoleum with a wooden door and slowly made her way as she cradled her son to her chest, opening the door and finding a corner to curl up in as he rooted around her chest. She giggled as he was grunting and suckling, running a paw over his ears as he fed, fighting the coughing from the disease she had that normally cause a quick death.

She looked around and sighed as they both settled, her eyes growing heavy as she returned her attention to her new son. “Well, this is not an ideal place to start a new life is it sweet boy? The fourth ward, a cemetery and an open grave in the section labeled as D. Where all the victims of plaques are buried. What am I going to call you?” She curled around him tightly keeping him warm as he settled in a contented sigh at her chest. “A grave in section D. Grave… D. What can I make with that?” She smiled as she cradled him again. “Edgar… What do you think?” She looked at him and giggled as he curled into her chest. “But there is a letter missing isn’t there. V…what can I make with V that will fit this little one who caused me to fall to my knees….Vallen? It sounds like fallen doesn’t it?” she asked and giggled again as he fussed. “Don’t like it? Then we will just stay with Allen instead.” He cooed as he latched to her again and she smiled as she sighed. “It’s settled then, we will not use the letter V …. Edgar Allen Poe. In the morrow we shall make our way to have you looked at and go home. Maybe your father will be home by then.”

Her head snapped up as she heard a fluttering and she curled her lip as a raven sat in the open window that allowed air to keep the graves from becoming stagnant. She coughed as she shook her head at the bird. “There will be no meal for you today. Fly away bird of death, you will have no recourse this night.”

The raven ticked its head to one side and cawed before its wings fluttered and it flew away as she curled around her son again.

The bird perched on a tree and fell to the ground as it became a shadow, creeping into the mausoleum and watching from a corner….. “I found you, little one. I do not know what is meant to happen, only that we will make a new path. I will return at the end of this life and take you to the only one I will be able to carry you into….”

A lifetime later;

Grace swooped through the night and landed at the door of a lonely soul who had no family to call on. She watched in the depths of the shadows as the last breath fled his body and stole in, grabbing the ember that left him and curled it into her paw as she sped to another life. She looked around cautiously, making sure she wasn't being watched as she slipped through the shadows again. She opened both paws in front of herself and looked at two glowing embers as she shed several tears. "I can guide you each to only one life. Forgive me, little one. You must all find each other again. I will bring you together and hope all I do is enough to save us all."

She split herself in two, traveling between the spaces of time and carried one to the outskirts of a small farm as the other part of herself traveled to that of a Den built into the side of a small hill. She blew each glowing orb into a window and closed her eyes as she turned from one window, flooded with fear as the path she’d always seen so clearly darkened to the point she had a hard time seeing anything. She fought through it and pulled herself back together, speeding into the darkness of the night.

"There is one more I must reach before I go into the light and I must leave Nicholas." She slipped into the darkness of herself and came out of the shadows in another year, just as she’d traveled through them all before..

**Notes; Jack Savage is half rabbit and half hare, a hybrid of the only two species on the planet that reproduce and can also have children. This is a fact with the domesticated species. Any other species that can interbreed, produce offspring who can’t have children. Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s how it is in my little world of Zootopia. He’s what’s known as a jackelope because they shouldn’t exist. It’s an offensive speciest name given to the hybrids by – well - morons. The hybrids aren’t openly accepted by the bunny community or hares. Most hares have a superiority complex. Hares in Zootopia have the attitude they’re better than others because they’re descended from Gods and often value physical pleasure over everything else because it’s how they’re raised. Sumatran striped rabbits are native to Indonesia and a few other places but are a threatened species. Hares are quite a bit larger than bunnies. These striped rabbits have unusually short ears, Jack doesn’t because he’s part rabbit. He’ll be raised better.**

**Heaven Lee Walker was renamed Skye Walker by Nick in Think Like fox. She’s a year older than Nick. Walker is her mother’s last name as the tods take the vixen’s last name. This was carried over from Robin Hoods time and is also why rabbits do the same thing – bunnies and foxes just don’t remember that’s how it got started. Some things are just lost to time – pfft. Skye’s father works on airplanes and is a pilot, so all his kits were named after something that had to do with his job and the sky, which is part of why Nick chose Skye as her den/fox name. Skye’s father’s ‘maiden’ name is Winters.**

**Finnick regained his hearing while he was with Rose in Think Like A Fox through the only thing that can break the sound barrier; Flight. The altitude change made his ears pop during the flight and dislodged the sand Grace left in his ears. (That might be one of the insane reasons people thought it would restore hearing back in the day.) It also saved his life because he wasn't home when his family passed away because of an electrical fire.**

**_“D. Grave… D. What can I make with that?”_ ** **She smiled as she cradled him a gain. “Edgar…” Edgar is an anagram for D. Grave. Allen is for fallen as that is what happened when she birthed him, also a little ironic because he is the fallen. She did not use the letter V as he fussed when she tried to make it fit into the name, so he became Edgar Allen Poe in the story. This is Loki.**


	32. Hidden In Plain Sight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fate is undefined-

**Hidden In Plain Sight**

Creed; With Arms Wide Open

Kate Ryan; Light in the Dark

**The City Of Roses;**

Nicholas paced the room and shook his head as the foxes around him kept chuckling. "You're going to wear a groove in the floor, John."

"Do you think she’s alright? Do you think the baby is alright? How long does this usually take and why haven't…"

"John. Sit down for a minute, will you? Patience is a virtue." The silver fox sighed as he sat next to his father in law and the fox beside him chuckled as he leaned forward. "I’m sure she’s fine. Relax. Babies are born every day."

"Not to any mammals like us they aren't, Ross. What if he’s like me? What if I don’t know what I’m supposed to do? What if…." he shook his head as his father in law nodded.

"Stop worrying about the if, John. Once you meet him all those fears will disappear. True, they aren’t born to mammals like you, you’re a bit unique in that area and even the date is unheard of. I mean has there ever been a fox born in November? But a birth is a birth. Just like a death is death. You can't do anything to change the outcome of either event so why worry about it?"

Nicholas looked back at him with one side of his lip curled and rolled his eyes as the tod beside him laughed. He looked around seeing her brothers all watching with grins and plopped his head into his paws. "How can you all be so calm!"

The foxes around him snickered and he shook his head. "She's a Wild. The only girl in our family. We aren't anywhere near calm, we're excited." Thorn chirped as Vel and Fayre nodded in agreement. Nicholas looked up with tipped brows as he searched all their faces.

Fayre leaned forward, "You aren't familiar with a lot of our ways because you grew up on the streets. What you don't understand is that she’s the oldest vixen. None of us could marry until she did, and had kits. Something none of us thought was possible." Nicholas blinked at all of them as he shook his head.

Ross tipped his head as Vel shrugged, "She helped you get that park up so you’d be accepted by the Den."

Nicholas shook his head in confusion as he looked between them. "They hate me and the park at the Den."

"Doesn't matter. If you hadn't been able to care for her as much as she could you, they wouldn't have accepted you into the Den at all."

Nicholas frowned. "I'm pretty sure Cassie is the only reason I got into the Den. Ughghgh; I'm never going to understand all those rules!"

"Give it time John, you will." Rose’s father prodded as Nicholas let his shoulders drop.

"Yeah, maybe in my next lifetime!”

They all looked at each other and laughed as he shook his head blinking. “What?”

“There’s just one lifetime, and you're in it.”

"Mr. Wild?" Nicholas shot up from the chair as they all chuckled at him again. "You can see your mate and son now."

"My son…?" he beamed as she opened the door nodding. The silver fox looked around and rushed forward after Rose's family had all shooed him that direction.

He stepped through the door trying to hold his heart rate as he puffed his cheeks out. "Cassie?" he asked when he spotted the older vixen waving him towards her. "Where is-"

She shook her head and stuck a finger to her lips as she pulled a curtain back and his ears shot up as a faint wailing started from behind it.

Cassie moved the curtain to the wall and Nicholas stepped forward, swallowing as Rose barely turned her head, smiling at him. "Rose?" The tiny hiccups grew again as she smiled at him.

"You woke him up." She signed tiredly as he stepped closer to the bed.

His chest puffed out as she moved her arm, exposing a little grey furred head in the crook of her arm. "Grey?" he asked.

She giggled softly as she shook her head. "He’ll be red. All fox kits are born grey unless they’re like you and me."

He sat next to her gently as he shook his head. "Then how do you know he won't stay grey?"

"Look," She leaned up slightly as Nicholas lowered his head. "He has your ears, and your tail." He watched her unwrap him and the tiny kit's tail uncurled, revealing a black tip unlike any ever seen before, hints of dark red lay just between the borders of each color in his fur. Nicholas' face went flat as she leaned forward and placed him in his arms. He ticked his eyes between her paws and the kit in his arm as he bit his lip. "Watch his head."

Nicholas cringed as the tiny kit in his arms wrinkled his nose, until he almost folded into a ball. "Look at you." He dipped his head down looking at his son and almost laughed as his nose flared. "He smells like you."

"I marked him, and you need to so he knows from now on that you’re his father. He’ll never forget your scent or mine and will be able to tell other foxes apart from anyone in our family for the rest of his life because of it. If you don't mark him within a few hours after being born, he won't imprint on you and won’t know you from a stranger."

Nicholas scrunched one side of his cheek up in apprehension as Rose giggled. "Just be gentle and be careful of his head and neck. Run your scent along the ridge of his cheek and over the top of his head." The silver fox kept his eyes on his mate as he pressed his cheek against the tiny kit and gently rolled his head over the top of his sons. The tiny kit cooed through a yawn as he came back up and Nicholas snapped his eyes to his little face. He was holding in his breath as he looked him over again. "Eight little fingers and eight little toes. Perfect. An everyday Miracle.”

“Born out of time.” Rose sighed as she smiled.

“What are we naming him?”

Rose giggled as she laid back and sighed. "It’s your place to name him my Nicholas. It should have something to do with you because he’ll carry the name of Wild."

"Nickel less. I’m not less anything anymore, am I? Neither are you. Rose…you’re a Mommy.”

She tipped up sitting next to him as she ran her paw over his back, until it rested over his shoulder as her head leaned into his other shoulder, looking at their new son. She sat next to him as she cupped an arm under the one he had supporting their new son until Nicholas looked up at her teary eyed as she sat back up a little after she moved her paws so she could speak. “A little Prince, from my tall dark and handsome fox.” Nicholas chuckled as she leaned back into him, and they rested their heads together, watching as the little fox unwound himself and stretched his arms, yawning again before curling back into a ball against his father’s chest.

“Nicholas Piberius Wild. A name to carry on. I’ll teach you everything I didn’t know, give you everything I never had. My son, I’ll show you everything……”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Bunny Burrough-many years later;**

Vi rolled her eyes as she passed the hall. A younger buck sat snoring in a chair outside the room and her mate stood leaning against the wall and bounced as she walked by. She giggled as her husband peeked into the room. "As soon as Doc Stevens is done you can come see them Papa." She stepped through the door carrying a pitcher of water and ice chips she sat on a little table and giggled as Bonnie laughed. "It gets easier every time doesn't it?"

Bonnie shrugged as Doc Stevens chuckled. "One more litter after this Bonnie and you'll be set."

The purple eyed rabbit sighed as she leaned back smiling. "Yeah, but I have more than most do already so it's alright."

Vi shook her head as she stepped closer and peeked into the little bassinet. She looked up as Bonnie grunted and laughed as Doc Stevens held up another tiny rabbit. "We'll now, he sure has some unusual birth markings doesn't he?"

Bonnie leaned up as he handed her the tiny kit and giggled. "Vincent." She chirped as Vi lifted a brow. Bonnie looked him over grinning before she handed him to her mother. "Looks like someone threw a bunch of red paint on him."

Doc Stevens laughed as Vi laid him with the others. "Those are just strawberries, they’ll probably fade, even if they don't, they may not be able to be seen under his fur. At least not after the golden age.”

Bonnie sighed. “They grow so fast. It’s always a little sad when that soft yellow fur they’re born with changes colors.”

Vi shook her head. "It’s a good signal they’re ready to go to school though. You know you are bad about breaking tradition Bonnie? We’re supposed to name them by the alphabet."

Bonnie scrunched her face and shook her head. "How would I remember all their names if I did that. "It's easier to name them with the first letter of the alphabet from the month they were born in, or by something that makes them stick out. Ooh!"

Doc Stevens twisted his head as Bonnie cringed. "You have a bit of a stubborn one here Bonnie. You might have to put some effort in this time." He stood pushing around on her abdomen and nodded. "Last one for this litter. Bare down hard."

Bonnie grit her teeth and sat up as Vi tipped a brow. "Keep going, he's a breach." Doc Stevens tilted his head to Vi, she grabbed a towel and several suctions along with some warmed blankets as the buck finally got ahold of a tiny foot. "One more push Bonnie." Bonnie sat up and ground her teeth as she put all her effort into holding her breath. "Got him! Oh – her!"

Bonnie snapped her eyes open as a shrill scream sounded and Vi laughed as her daughter jumped. "Well that doesn't happen very often does it?" The older doe giggled as Doc Stevens wrapped the newborn in a warming blanket looking her over as he nodded. "Yep, another healthy one, this one's just stubborn." He chuckled as he handed her to her mother.

Vi peeked over her daughter's arm grinning. "Duane! Get in here and look at your new kits! You should see all this yellow fur!"

The buck outside the room yawned and stuck his chin back in his palm. "Yeah, they all got yellow fur."

Vi rolled her eyes as Bonnie giggled. "He'll see them soon enough Mom." Bonnie sat up as Doc Stevens stepped beside her looking into the bassinet.

He looked them all over again before he wrapped them up and reached for the little doe Bonnie was holding. "Always more girls than boys, but it looks like they’re all just as healthy as they can be." Doc Stevens grinned as the little doe he was holding screamed. "This one's got some lungs on her." He handed her back to Bonnie as her voice settled into a groggy grunt. "You have a name for her picked out?"

Bonnie looked her over smiling. "Judy." Vi looked at her and blinked as Bonnie shook her head. "I don't think I'll have a problem remembering her name. Look at her ears."

Doc Stevens looked over her shoulder and nodded. "Hu, I didn't even notice that. Might just be bruised from the delivery. I'm sure her ears will be like everyone else's though." Bonnie let Vi take her and watched as she bundled them all together. "Get some rest Bonnie, I'll be by in the next few days to check on you again. In all the years I've been doing this I've never seen a doe have such good luck with their kits."

Vi showed him out and shook her head at the buck sitting in the hall, still snoring in a chair. Her mate lifted a brow and she laughed before he rushed into the room looking them over. "They get cuter every time!" She laughed as her mate stood over the bassinet.

From the window a shadow watched, her eyes fell before they turned and looked back to the stars. “One more stop….”

**Dancing shadows 1992**

She dove into the shadows, emerging onto a scene that had her fleeing the light from flames and dancing through the night until she settled in a dark corner. Grace had been slipping in and out of the shadows so much that any light was becoming difficult to tolerate. She stole into the darkest shadow she could find, watching the foxes until the older vixen was peeking out the door. A small set of green eyes landed on her and she cocked her head as the little fox blinked at her. “Hello young one.”

Nicky flipped his ears up and leaned into the shadow as she backed away. “Pwetty!”

Grace blinked and leaned over, watching him looking into her eyes. The little tod tipped closer, giggling quietly as the void of her eyes sparkled with stars. “I am Grace.”

“Gwace!”

Cassie watched Nicholas drift off as she looked out the cracks in the door, sitting up as she heard her grandson talking quietly. The vixen tipped her head and stood up blinking when she noticed he wasn't with his parents. She walked around the little plane, catching Nicky pointing a tiny claw at the back of the car. "Nicky?" he looked back at her grinning as he giggled.

"Gwace!"

Cassie curled her brow, picking him up as he kept pointing, and narrowed her eyes on the darker part of the train car before considering waking Nicholas. She shook her head and walked further into the space, looking around and sighing as Nicky giggled again. "There’s no one here. Come on, let's get to sleep for a little while." She curled her brow as the little kit stuck his head over her shoulder and waved.

"Bye - Bye Gwace!"

The older vixen brushed it off as she sat down and curled up next to her daughter as Nicky yawned and scooted closer to his mother.

In the shadows a dark figure curled a brow as she fought not to shift in the light coming through the cracks. "This is where I must leave you all. Keep him safe Nicholas and I will hope to meet you all again."

Nicholas woke with a start and looked around as he shivered. He shook his head as he pulled the tarp tighter around him, his son and the two vixens as he tried to go back to sleep, ignoring the darkest shadow that fled from the freight car...

Grace looked up at the night sky shaking her head. "I can see no further, the path here was hard to find and follow. I need your help to go back, Freya…." She spoke out loud as she fled into the shadows again.

The dark figure halted as a bright light stepped in her path and she looked up seeing a lion in front of her. He dipped his head in a deep growl that showed his teeth as she fought to keep her shapeless form in his light. "You have been running all over the place, racing here and there Grace. I will not tolerate you interfering in what I have set into motion."

The dark form shifted and Odin narrowed his eyes as a vixen stood in front of him, thick billowing robes rested around her as stars twinkled in the fabric made of nothing. Planets swirled in her deep blue eyes as he looked her over shaking his head. "What have you done to yourself? One so clever would not leave parts of herself where others could find them. You are incomplete. Maybe you need something from me?"

The vixen hissed as she grew in size until the lion was looking up at her scowling. "Do not patronize me Odin or act as if you are above me! None are above me! I cannot change the insanity of what you have set into motion, that does not mean I will not give others the chance."

"Very full of yourself aren't you, for a fox. The most unworthy of forms you could have chosen. You cannot live without me. It would be in your interest to tell me of the whereabouts of my armor so you can continue on your path." He growled as he let his whiskers curl into a scrunched muzzle. "Where is My Armor!"

She laughed as he glared at her. "Do not threaten me with something as idle as death! I will always be, my path is a loop that never ends and I can travel through it as I travel through myself! Not even thought can outrun me. You were warned many times, I warned you! Even your own son went against his rules betraying his oath to tell you Loki's death would lead to darkness! You must have had the sense not to kill him because of it, but it makes no difference. If you thought I would tell you where to find the armor you are a bigger fool than even Freya believes. You have no sway over me, regardless of what you hold now! None can live without her and the power you have will be your undoing one way or another. You are nothing more than a thief!"

The lion growled and swiped at her. She grabbed his arm and flung him to the side as if he were nothing more than a swatted fly. The vixen lowered her head as the lion crouched and narrowed his eyes. "Thief! That fox was a thief! They should have called him the God of Thieves! I have asked repeatedly! I will not ask again! I will have the armor, mark my words vixen, even if killing you is what it takes to obtain it!"

"You cannot kill what has never lived and every creature owes me a death! You cannot kill what can be in more than one place at one time, what no one can touch or catch, what can be everywhere in all the worlds, what lives within each of you! Even as a God I whisper in your ears Odin! I will collect the one you have stolen from me and take back all the power you should never have had! I will have back the souls you reap and the one you stole from me and take yours in the process! I will leave you in the darkness, Damned to all Eternity if I fail!"

The lion roared as she slipped into a shadow returning to a time before the present and was gone as he turned screaming. "GRACE! I KNOW YOUR TRUE NAME! I WILL CALL UPON YOU AND YOU WILL BRING ME BACK MY ARMOR! GRACE!"

He froze as a billowing black silhouette appeared in front of him and slowly curled around him as his eyes clenched shut and arms pinned to his sides, the cold chill of her darkness sent his fur on end as his whole body shivered. "Call upon me, _Great One_. Say my name, _God_. Say my true name but once, and I shall come to you _in all my glory_." The lion's whiskers twitched as a pair of deep black eyes opened in front of him and he shuttered as they shifted to a blue so dark the stars within them were barely visible. "I know where you were lost, how you were lost and how you came to be. SAY MY NAME!" The shapeless form hovered as it took shape again and he fell to his knees swallowing as she looked down at him and lowered her brow. Her mouth split in a ferocious snarl and she snapped her black teeth, lifting her head as he flinched away from her and shied his eyes. "Every child Odin, every child no matter how they come into existence is what?" He curled his lips as she dropped her blackened brow. "EVERY CHILD IS WHAT!?"

"Yours to sow, yours to reap." he answered through tight lips and looked up before he jolted his arms over his head as her jaws lunged. He heaved several times and was left gritting his teeth as the darkness around him stilled and stayed silent until his own infuriated roar split his maw and echoed in his own ears…..

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Grace flew into the darkness until she came upon a small basket that was tossed to the side of the road and the unheard voice that cried within. The shadow that had been crawling through history and the world picked it up and let her head hang as she removed the only living infant still wrapped in plastic, meant to suffocate her as it had all the others. She looked around at the hilltops, dark mountains that were capped with snowy peaks and cradled the infant to her chest as she lost the battle to breathe again. "I will give you the life you were never meant to have, if you will give me the soul I never had. We shall be one, hope that we make the right choices on this journey, for even I will not be able to see through the veil between life and death while I am in the light." The vixen waited as the tiny ember floated up and caught it in her paw as she slipped into the shadows again, reappearing many miles away at the quaint little cabin situated among the rocky mountain terrain. She laid the body of the child on a doorstep and held the lost soul out as she closed her eyes. “Freya..”

Freya's ears set as the shadows danced around her, a glance out the window and a single distant star blinked as she stood from her seat. She looked out watching her mate and children all discussing something before she slipped into another room and drowned all the light as she closed the curtains. "Grace? Did you call for me?" she whispered as the room became still…. “Are you here?”

**Notes; The word Burrough (Burrow) is spelled like this intentionally. A plague hit Bunny Burrow. In short it caused the rabbits to feel cold and had other lasting effect on those who lived, most of them didn't survive as was mentioned in a previous chapter. The sick had to burn the dead and living there became rough. Bur because they were cold and rough because they lived and died in the roughest conditions imaginable. The way it was spelled was changed to Bunny Burrough because that’s what the rabbits there started referring to the town as it during the plague. Father Time/ Growing old with Grace/ Old age/ Time has another name in Norse Mythology.**


	33. The First, The Last, The Only; TIME

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eh I hate trying to fill out this section when there are notes a the end

**The First, The Last, The Only; TIME**

1985; Three years before Nick’s Birth

30 seconds to Mars; Do or Die If you’re paying attention to the music, this is intentional **.**

(Blink and you’ll miss it. This may seem like a recap- but there is something in here people might not understand if it wasn’t pointed out)

Grace flew into the darkness until she came upon a small basket that was tossed to the side of the road and the unheard voice that cried within. The shadow that had been crawling through history and the world picked it up and let her head hang as she removed the only living infant still wrapped in plastic, meant to suffocate her as it had all the others. She looked around at the hilltops, dark mountains that were capped with snowy peaks and cradled the infant to her chest as she lost the battle to breathe again. "I will give you the life you were never meant to have, if you will give me the soul I never had. We shall be one, hope that we make the right choices on this journey, for even I will not be able to see through the veil between life and death while I am in the light." The vixen waited as the tiny ember floated up and caught it in her paw as she slipped into the shadows again, reappearing many miles away at the quaint little cabin situated among the rocky mountain terrain. She laid the body of the child on a doorstep and held the lost soul out as she closed her eyes. “Freya…”

Freya's ears set as the shadows danced around her, a glance out the window and a single distant star blinked as she stood from her seat. She looked out watching her mate and children all discussing something before she slipped into another room and drowned all the light as she closed the curtains. "Grace? Did you call for me?" she whispered as the room became still…. “Are you here?” The wolf tipped her ears as the vixen appeared in front of her, an expression on her face that was as easily read as one of her own children as the vixen opened her paw. Freya's brow curled as she looked to the little ember and back to Grace. "You have not put them all in place yet?"

Grace nodded as she kept her eyes ticking around the floor and Freya smiled softly as the vixen curled her paw back around the little ember and pulled it to her chest.

"You know where Loki is?" she asked and watched as Grace dipped her head and closed her eyes. "Heimdall, Sigyn and…her?" Grace sighed as she clenched her eyes tighter and curled one arm around herself as the other stayed locked at her chest holding the lost soul she had.

The vixen shied her eyes as she held out the tiny speck in her paw. "I cannot see any further than where I left him with his parents, I barely managed to set them all in place because I could not see the path. I must go back a few years before they are all born, to be born, so that there is a chance we will meet. So there is hope he will find her.”

“Are you sure you need to do this?” Freya cocked her head to one side as Grace closed her eyes.

“I know the path does not end yet. Not here. I just cannot see from now until it does. It can only mean I am part of it. I don't know what will happen and I will forget everything, even why I am there, and I am… afraid."

The she wolf tilted her head in a motherly fashion as she smiled. "You have been able to be in all places at once in all your existence, have never known pain, have never known fear, have always known what would come next. There is so much more that you do not know Grace. So much that is better than the darkness you have taken care of and the fear you feel now. To quote one of your own lines, no one has power over free will, unless it is their own will. It is your choice to make. You must be the one who lets it all go. You have already made up your mind if you have come this far.”

The vixen closed her eyes sighing as she pulled the tiny ember back to herself and nodded. "Mother of life, mother of love, help me please. Help me live." Grace stood with Freya _and_ over the tiny body she’d laid on the porch. She pulled all of herself to the two places and away from all she’d ever been.

The wolf smiled as Grace reached into her robe and handed her a small nest. “They will be reborn and need to be watched while I am away. There is another I need you to look in on in his darkest hour.” Freya tipped her head. “I have been his shadow all his life, kept him hidden and never left him alone. He will need you. I placed a part of my darkness in his fur to keep him safe and help him with the armor, after I used grains of sand to make the others all the fates. He will be overtaken by it if he sees no light in his darkest hour.”

“You altered the armor?”

Grace closed her eyes and tipped her head. “No. I let the Gods within it see what would happen. I allowed them all to see there was no future if something was not changed. They chose to help me, to help his mother and father.”

Freya smiled as Grace looked back at her. “Heimdall as well? Odin’s eye soaked up the knowledge from the waters of wisdom, you changed the eye so he could see into the future with a grain of your sand?” Grace nodded as Freya took the nest and sat it aside. “Where did Sigyn come from?” Grace let her lips tremble as she looked back at the motherly figure.

“You have decided on the Fates, moved through yourself and history to get here. You have already made the choice, but I will help.” Grace held out her paws and Freya took the fox in her arms, letting her shrink into a tiny mist with the ember she held. She blew her breath into the space and Grace pulled herself into the lost soul.

Freya turned smiling as she watched the eggs hatch. "Huginn and Muninn. The thought and memory of all Time.” She stepped out her window as she watched a shooting star fly away, biting back her tears as she cupped her paws to her chest. "Become all you have cared for, be all you have done. Live. Rage, Grace, Rage against the dying of the light…”

On a distant world, light years away, the vixen curled around the breath she had been given, and poured all of herself into the tiny body of a small vixen. Becoming a tiny fox that now held new life, leaving all she’d even known behind, and lost within the light she’d never known. The last thought in her mind as she left the darkness behind was a single name, a solitary thought she hoped she could remember as she repeated it in her mind. _Fox God…. Guide him, save him so he can find …her. Loki, Loki, Loki, Loki…._

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The red fox within the cabin's ears shot up and he scrunched one side of his lip up as the goats sitting around the table with him all looked around. "You hear a kid crying too?" one of them asked and the fox's ears tilted back and forth as he nodded. They all got up and went towards the door, leaving their game of cards on the table. He opened the door and lifted both brows at the tiny infant lying on his porch.

"My Gods!" the fox picked her up curling an arm around her naked little body as he looked over the rest of the porch.

"Abandoned? You hear anything else?" the goat asked as the fox cringed and looked around shaking his head. "Just one?"

The tod looked around frowning as the goats around him all watched curiously. "She's so cold. She wasn't even cleaned after being birthed." He rushed into the kitchen filling the sink with warm water before lying the tiny infant in and watching as she stopped fussing while she warmed in the water. He was holding her head above the surface as her body floated. "Like that don't you?' he asked as the goats looked around his arms.

One of the Billie's turned to the others and shook his head as he shrugged. "I…thought he moved here because he didn't like kids?" One whispered as the other shook his head in a face that screamed shut up.

"He moved here because he couldn't have a family. Some kind of accident when he was younger. Said because of his family name and that he couldn't have a family, he didn't feel like he belonged with other foxes. His parents moved him here with his aunt when he was younger." He whispered as the tod chuckled at the little vixen stretching her arms in balled fists as she yawned.

"Say, do you guys know where I can get some milk?" the tod asked as he ran a finger over the little vixen's head before he picked up a cloth and was gently cleaning her off.

The goat who was standing closest nodded as he scratched his head. "All over the place here, Nanny goats always have plenty of it." He looked at the clock and shook his head. "Can't tell what time it is if your clock isn't working Michael, but I can go ask one of the old gals for you if it's not too late."

The tod turned his head to the wall and back to another clock on the stove and dropped his brow. "All my clocks stopped?" He turned back looking at the little vixen and smiled as she pursed her lips into an o and stuck her tongue out. "You're all wrinkly baby girl, like an extra cute version of a little old lady." The tod snickered as she sucked on one of his knuckles.

The Billie behind him covered his grin as the goats around him all snickered. "Worse than the cards he plays and flowers he grows." They all chuckled as the fox grabbed a small towel from a rack above the sink and turned around fussing over her. "Think you’re all in there Michael."

The fox smiled as he sat down, coddling the little vixen in his arms as he dried her off. "Yeah, I’m All en…" He looked back up as they ticked their eyes between him and the little girl he was holding.

"What you calling her Michael? I thought foxes took the vixen's name, you aren't mated."

"Guess she’ll be unusual then, carrying the name of Loxley from a tod." He grinned as he looked her over.

"Loxley? You related to that Robin Hood guy?"

The tod snickered as he shook his head, watching the little vixen cooing in his arm. "No, it's the town my family came from way back, but a lot of mammals thought that because of the name, no one really knows what that guy's real name was anymore, least not anywhere I’ve heard of. Part of the reason I left."

"So, she's a Loxley, what about her other names?"

The red fox looked off in thought as he caught the scent of the newly blooming flowers in his window and smiled. "A cute wrinkly little old lady that arrived the day the tansy's bloomed. Made all my clocks stop with her arrival. A fighter too. Hehe, yeah I know what I'll call her…. Ellie Tansey Loxley." The tod blinked as his face curled up.

"What's wrong Michael?"

He sighed as he looked back to the little vixen sucking on one of his knuckles and smiled. "We have to move, so she’s around other foxes."

The goats looked at each other and sighed. "I'll be back, I'm going to go see if Biddy has some milk. It's gonna be dull around here without you though." The fox chuckled as the others retook their seats.

"Where are you going to go Michael? We thought you didn't want to go back because of the errr…"

The red fox looked at the vixen in his arms, smiling as he shook his head. "Sometimes, the only way to hold on, is to let go. The only way to move forward may be to go back. We aren't leaving just yet. I'll wait a few years and look around, find somewhere that’s right for us, where there’s hope for foxes again." He smiled wider as she cooed at him and gnawed on his knuckle again. "We have time…"

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In another part of the world a small crime Lord frowned. Mr. Big cocked an eyebrow as he sat up, pulling the little locket from his pocket and looking it over before pressing it to his ear. "Hmm, it has stopped ticking." He looked it over again and raised a brow after he popped it open. "and the hands have faded away…"

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**Eight years later;**

The young vixen clutched the stuffed little sheep in her paws to her chest as she sniffled again. Her father reached over pulling her face to him as he smiled. "It will be alright, you’ll see."

She sighed as she looked out the window and shook her head. "I don't want to move Daddy. All my friends are here."

He nodded as she looked at him with tears in her eyes. "I know, but you’ll make new friends."

She curled her lip as he put the car in gear and frowned as she grumbled. "I don't want to make new friends. There’s nothing wrong with the friends I already have."

The tod in the seat chuckled as he pulled away from the driveway. "No there isn't, but that doesn't mean you can't make new ones."

"Why do we have to move Daddy? I like it here!"

The tod sighed as he kept his eyes on the road and pulled over after they left to the little mountain trail that led to their home as the young vixen sobbed into her stuffed animal. "You need to be around other foxes Elly. We may not be the most social of creatures, but you’ll never find a normal life here."

The vixen wiped her cheeks as she glared out the window. "Well who cares about being normal anyway! I just want to be happy!"

Her father laughed as he looked the other direction. "I think you’re deciding too soon that you won't be happy. Can you at least try? The city I found is unlike anything you’ve ever seen and I bet you’ll love it. They have a den there that’s the talk of the whole fox community now."

She tipped her head at him scowling as she tightened her arms over her chest. "What's so great about a den anyway? There isn't one here and I was happy."

The tod sighed as he rubbed his forehead. "Honey, I would do anything to make you happy. But there’s no chance you’ll ever meet another fox here. We’re the only red foxes who live in the mountains like this. There aren't even any arctic foxes here. I just want you to meet some of your own kind and see what it’s like for the rest of the foxes. All of us have a den and you’re almost old enough to join one too."

The young vixen curled her lip as she looked at her father glaring. "If all foxes are part of a den, how come we live here? What den were you part of? Why did we leave? Was my mother there too?"

The tod cringed as he bit into his finger. "No she wasn't. I don't want to talk about your mother. Look this will be fun! Something new and exciting! You’ll meet all kinds of new people and see things you could only imagine when we get there."

The young vixen let her head hang and he cinched one shoulder into his cheek as tears fell from her muzzle and dripped from her nose into her lap. "I don't want new and exciting. I want old and comfortable."

He unlatched her seat belt and pulled her to his side as he wrapped an arm around her. "I love you and I know this is scary. Something new is always scary, but we'll be together and I know you’ll be happy again. Wait until you see this city. It's like the ninth wonder of the world!"

She looked up at him sniffling as she ran her arm across her nose and he rolled his eyes. He reached into the glove box and pulled several tissues out he cleaned off her arm and face with. "Please don't do that. A young lady should always use a tissue."

"Who said I wanted to be a lady anyway!" she growled.

He chuckled when he shoved them over her nose. "You’re pretty close to being a young lady already and I can see exactly how beautiful you’re going to be. Blow." She looked up at him frowning before she blew her nose and leaned into his side as he shoved the used tissue in a trash sack behind the seat. "I'm telling you lambchop, you’ll love it there."

The young vixen looked up at him and narrowed her eyes as he smiled. "Stop calling me that!"

"I can't help it, he was the first guy you had a crush on."

"Daddy! I was seven!"

"Well, I know you’ll get another name when we get there. A den always gives a young fox a new name when they’re old enough to start learning our ways." She cocked a brow as he smiled down at her. "This city has districts where the weather is different in every section of town. Buildings are shaped like trees and there are walls made of ice. Towers that look like ribbons blowing in the wind sit all over the place. There's no other place in the world like it. You’ll get to see the ocean too."

Her ears perked as he sat up smiling, knowing he’d finally touched something that caught her attention. She’d always been fascinate with the rain and water. "The ocean?" she asked as her ears flipped again.

He nodded as she sat up in the seat chewing her lip. "We have to take a boat to get there. We’ll be on the water for a few months because it's so far away. It's the only way to take the car."

The young vixen looked around nervously and he fought not to smile as he kept his brows raised, waiting. "Months?" she asked and he nodded as she tried to hide her smile. "What’s it like there?"

The tod chuckled as she set her ears on him. "There are trees made of glass, with leaves that make the roofs as large as the cliffs we played on. Ice walls that are taller than the highest peaks at the waterfall, and a den that is under the ground where all the foxes meet and teach each other how to fox."

"How to fox?" she asked as she smiled wider.

"Yes," he answered smiling as she tilted her head. "We learn how to be sneaky, and tricky, and sly with our words, with our actions, with everything we do in life. Where we learn how to be like….." he looked around sneakily as she giggled. "The God of Mischief!"

"Looooooki!" she whispered, dragging out the name and giggling as he grabbed her nose.

"Ch- ch- ch! Don't say his name!" her father pulled her nose from side to side, laughing as she scrunched her muzzle and snapped her teeth at him playfully. "This den is special. It’s the first one ever made and they thought it was just a myth. It’s covered in massive carvings and statues of the fox that are as big as the cliffs the goats climbed around on." Her eyes dropped and he knew he’d used a poor choice of words bringing up the friends they were leaving behind again. "I booked us a room on the boat that has a view of the ocean you can watch as we travel there."

"You got a room that I can see out a window?" She asked and he smiled as he nodded.

"We get to eat there, and sleep there, and watch the islands go by. We’ll be able to watch the rain and the waves that crash over the side of the boat."

"Where will we live when we get there?"

He smiled as he pet her ears back. "I bought a little house that’s just big enough for us, with a yard where we can grow all the flowers and herbs we can sell there."

"We’re still going to grow flowers and plants?" She asked.

He chuckled as she looked at him with a tilted brow. "Of course. I know how much you love working in the dirt and watching as the rain waters the plants."

The vixen sighed as she looked out the window. "What will my new name be?" she asked as he scrunched his nose and narrowed his eyes in thought.

"Hmm. I'm not sure. It will usually be picked by someone who knows you or has something to do with you." He looked off and smiled before she sat up and bounced in the seat. "Do you know what your name means?" he asked and she deadpanned him.

"Ellie? Daddy! You won't tell me what it means!"

He chuckled as she curled her lip at him. "No, not your first name, your second name. Do you know what Tansy means?"

She curled her lip as she looked off in thought and he smiled as she looked back at him grinning. "It's the name of the flower that bloomed the day I was born."

"Yes it is, but they call it something else too." She cocked a brow at him as he stuck a claw on her shirt. She looked down, seeing it resting on one of her buttons before he flicked it up tapping her nose and laughed as she giggled and shot away from him yelling again.

"DADDY!"

The tod chuckled as she curled around him and looked down at her as she glanced up at him. "They call it a Button! We’ll see if that sticks when we get there.”

“What’re they going to call you?”

He looked at her grinning. “I think...Allen will work.”

“Why Allen?”

“Because for you, I’m all in - Allen! But if we don’t hurry we’re going to miss the boat we have to catch, and you’ll never see the ocean."

"Get me on a boat!" she squealed excitedly and he laughed as he motioned to the seat belt. She clicked in over her waist and leaned into his side as he put the car back in gear. “How long will it be before I meet other foxes?”

The tod smiled watching her eyes droop. It was early in the morning and they’d stayed up late sending time with everyone before the move. “It will be a few years. We need a little time to get settled there so you’re used to the city and all the differences.” He chuckled as she leaned into his side and yawned as she closed her eyes….

The little vixen was asleep as he pulled the car through the gates and onto the ferry that led to a larger ship. He sat with her as the waves rocked them back and forth and was grinning ear to ear as she yawned and rubbed her eyes, sitting up. Her eyes flew open as a horn blew and she shot in the seat looking out the window before she jumped from the car. He jerked the door open, laughing as he ran after her. "Hey! Slow down! Don't get too close to the edge, Honey."

The vixen stopped and gawked as she looked over the rail and out to the open ocean. "It's so big…You can't see anything but water from here!" she whispered as he stood beside her, watching the wonder in her eyes as she turned a full one eighty and looked around.

"The world is a big place, this is only the first stop."

She bit her lip as she looked up at him from a lowered head. "Are you sure I’ll like it there and make new friends?"

He held his arms out waiting until she curled around him and looked down at her smiling as he tipped his head to the open water. "Is the ocean big?" he asked as he sucked in a breath. She nodded as she looked around. "How big is it?" she scrunched her brows down as he smiled at her and tightened his arms around her in a tight hug. He gasped as he shook his head like he was shocked. "You mean you don't know how big it is?!" She shook her head giggling as she looked up from his chest. "It’s as big as I am sure that you’ll be happy and make new friends.”

“What’s the name of the town?”

He chuckled as she kept her eyes on him. “It used to be called Jericho. It means City of the Moon. Now it’s called Zootopia. The Den is called the Den of Thieves. The God Of Mischiefs first temple.”

The little vixen closed her eyes and sighed as he pet her ears. “If it has something to do with Loki-

“Ch! Ch! Don’t say his name! ” He dipped his head to hers as he closed his eyes. “We’ll be able to find a better future there. I know you’ll love it.”

“Ok Daddy….”

**Notes; The name Michael means; "Who is Godlike?" (A rhetorical question) It’s also the only name given for an archangel that’s identified in the bible and he’s the Chief of all Angels. The 'highest messenger'. A reminder; if you are thinking this has anything to do with the modern version of 'God'. Referring to Catholics, Christians, anyone with some type of God- you are still VERY WRONG - But there is no denial about references from many different cultures, religions, stories and fables, history and weaving them all together through imagination, etc. AAAAND- some of the music is bad-period, but it fit and the majority of it was chosen for its clues and mood to the area of the story it is in. Rage against the dying of the light is from a poem by Dylan Thomas; Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night. Profound in the story line. Shrug poetry is all through history too and it really fit.**

**This story is based on the premise of reincarnation. (Really hope that isn't a reality) The reason Nick, Judy and Jack have black in their fur when no other species of their kind do has nothing to do with their biological lineage or who they are reincarnated as or were in previous lives. It has everything to do with the fact that Time/ darkness carried their souls between each life without returning them to the spark of creation. Skye never had any black in her fur because she was born from Time's sand and a seed and darkness has no effect on her because she is the daughter of Time. Finnick doesn't have any in his fur because he was reincarnated through the natural course of things, Time just knew who he was and had already chosen him before his first life to become a fate. He plays the drums when he gets older; Time marches to the beat of a drum. He's obsessed with wolves. 'Someone large enough to carry the past and hold the weight of the world as it grows.' The gods aren't going to show up much in the future and the few times they do it's to save one who was thought lost (Scrolls of Odin). But it would take someone with a large soul to carry the weight of the past and the weight of the world as it grows on his shoulders. (Atlas reference) It was explained to Mimir in chapter five. I think its obvious who Finnick was born as in his first life even though I didn't write much about him, but Time didn't make him a Fate until she placed grains of sand in his ears.**


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